UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


•TO 


THE  MECKLENBURG  DECLARATION 
OF  INDEPENDENCE 

MAY  20,    1775 
AND  LIVES  OF  ITS  SIGNERS 


THE  MECKLENBURG 

DECLARATION  OF 

INDEPENDENCE 

MAY  20,  1775 
AND  LIVES  OF  ITS  SIGNERS 

BY 

GEORGE  W.  GRAHAM,  M.  D. 


COPYRIGHT,  1905 

BY 
GEORGE  W.  GRAHAM,  M.  D. 


E 


GIG 


PREFACE 


This  monograph  upon  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion of  Independence  was  read  before  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Society  of  America  at  its  meeting  in  Lexing- 
ton, Virginia,  on  June  21,  1895,  and  is  printed  in 
Vol.  VII  of  the  transactions  of  that  association. 
It  has  since  been  revised  and  enlarged  and  several 
>,  separate  editions  issued  in  pamphlet.     And,  as  the 
>  demand   for  the  essay  has   exceeded  the  writer's 
I  expectations,  it  is  now  published  in  book  form  with 
3*  a  short  biography  of  the  signers  of  the  declaration 
added. 

The  author  will  be  found  to  differ  with  some  ad- 
,vocates  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  in  that  he 
'acknowledges  the  verbal  errors  of  the  Davie  copy  of 
the  resolutions,  defines  the  position  of  the  Thirty- 
first  Resolves  in  the  controversy,   and  shows  why 
Martin's  History  of   North   Carolina  is   authentic, 
and   therefore  contains   a  correct  account  of  the 
famous  convention  at  Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775. 


321055 


Since  this  address  was  first  presented  to  the  Scotch- 
Irish  Society,  a  number  of  writers,  usually  news- 
paper contributors,  have  copied  freely  from  it  and 
displayed  their  productions  in  the  press  without 
either  quotation  marks  or  any  acknowledgment 
whatever  as  to  the  source  of  their  information. 

The  reader  that  desires  to  examine  the  authorities 
cited  in  this  paper  will  find  in  the  appendix  a  tran- 
script of  the  Davie  copy  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion, so  much  of  the  preface  to  Martin's  History  as 
is  pertinent  to  our  subject,  and  a  copy  of  the  pam- 
phlet issued  by  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina  in 
1831,  containing  Mr.  Jefferson's  letter  to  John 
Adams,  and  the  testimony  of  spectators  and  delegates 
to  the  twentieth  of  May  convention,  as  well  as  other 
interesting  data  germane  to  this  question. 

GEORGE  W.  GRAHAM,  M.  D. 

Charlotte,  N.  C. 
April,  1905. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface 5 

The  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence 9 

The  Thirty-first  Resolves 38 

The  Lives  of  the  Signers  and  a  Few  Spectators : 

Gen.  Thomas  Polk 84 

Col.  Abraham  Alexander 100 

Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard 103 

Col.  Adam  Alexander 107 

Gen.  Robert  Irwin 1 10 

John  McKnitt  Alexander in 

Rev.  Hezekiah  Balch 114 

Hezekiah  Alexander 1 16 

Capt.  Zaccheus  Wilson 117 

Neil  Morrison 120 

Richard  Barry 121 

John  Flennikin 122 

William  Graham 123 

Matthew  McClure 123 

John  Queary 124 

Ezra  Alexander 124 

Waightstill  Avery 125 

Col.  William  Kennon 127 

Col.  James  Harris 128 

David  Reese 129 

Henry  Downs 130 

John  Foard 131 

Charles  Alexander 132 

Robert  Harris,  Sr 132 

Maj.  John  Davidson 134 

Col.  Ezekiel  Polk 136 

Capt.  James  Jack 137 

Rev.  Francis  Cummings,  D.  D 139 

Gen.  Joseph  Graham 140 

Gen.  George  Graham 142 

Appendix — Documents  Cited  in  Preceding  Address : 

Martin's  Preface 146 

Pamphlet  Issued  by  the  Legislature  of  North  Carolina,  1831.  151 


THE   MECKLENBURG   DECLARATION   OF 
INDEPENDENCE 

MAY  20,  1775  * 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

The  subject  of  our  address  to-day  is  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  of  Independence,  a  theme  of  deep 
interest  to  the  Scotch-Irish  fraternity,  as  the  first  men 
in  America  to  cast  off  the  British  yoke  were  members 
of  that  brotherhood.  The  genuineness  of  this  decla- 
ration has  long  been  a  subject  of  controversy  among 
historians,  because  at  the  time  of  their  writing  all  the 
proofs  of  its  authenticity  had  not  been  gathered. 
During  the  past  four  years,  we,  aided  by  Professor 
Alexander  Graham  of  Charlotte,  North  Carolina, 
have  made  a  thorough  investigation  of  this  question, 
and  now  present  to  your  honorable  assembly  the 
result  of  our  research.  It  will  be  found  to  contain 
much  new  evidence  that  has  never  appeared  in  print, 
and,  we  think,  will  remove  all  doubt  as  to  there 
having  been  a  Declaration  of  Independence  by  the 
Scotch-Irish  of  Mecklenburg  on  May  19-20,  1775. 

The  history  of  the  adoption  of  this  declaration,  its 
publication,  and  the  subsequent  controversy  regard- 
ing it,  runs  as  follows : 

*See  Preface. 


10  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"In  the  months  of  March  and  April,  1775,  the 
leading  men  in  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  held 
meetings  to  ascertain  the  sense  of  the  people,  and  to 
confirm  them  in  their  opposition  to  the  claims  of  Par- 
liament to  impose  taxes  and  regulate  the  internal 
policy  of  the  Colonies.  At  one  of  these  meetings, 
when  it  was  ascertained  that  the  people  were  pre- 
pared to  meet  their  wishes,  it  was  agreed  that  Thomas 
Polk,  then  colonel  commandant  of  the  county,  should 
issue  an  order  directed  to  each  captain  of  militia, 
requesting  him  to  call  a  company  meeting  to  elect  two 
delegates  from  his  company  to  meet  in  general  com- 
mittee at  Charlotte  on  the  iQth  of  May ;  giving  to  the 
delegates  ample  power  to  adopt  such  measures  as  to 
them  should  seem  best  calculated  to  promote  the  com- 
mon cause  of  defending  the  rights  of  the  Colony,  and 
aiding  their  brethren  in  Massachusetts.  Colonel 
Polk  issued  the  order,  and  the  delegates  were  elected. 
They  met  in  Charlotte  on  the  day  appointed.  The 
forms  of  their  proceedings  and  the  measures  to  be 
proposed  had  been  previously  agreed  upon  by  the 
men  at  whose  instance  the  committee  were  assembled. 
The  Rev.  Hezekiah  J&B£s  Balch,  Dr.  Ephraim 
Brevard,  and  William  Kennon,  Esq.,  an  attorney  at 
law,  addressed  the  committee,  and  descanted  on  the 
causes  which  had  led  to  the  existing  contest  with  the 
mother  country,  and  the  consequences  which  were  to 
be  apprehended  unless  the  people  should  make  a  firm 
and  energetic  resistance  to  the  right  which  Parlia- 
ment asserted  of  taxing  the  Colonies  and  regulating 
their  internal  policy. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  11 

"On  the  day  on  which  the  committee  met,  the  first 
intelligence  of  the  action  at  Lexington,  in  Massachu- 
setts, on  the  i  Qth  of  April,  was  received  in  Charlotte. 
This  intelligence  produced  the  most  decisive  effect. 
A  large  concourse  of  people  had  assembled  to  witness 
the  proceedings  of  the  committee.  The  speakers 
addressed  their  discourses  as  well  to  them  as  to  the 
committee,  and  those  who  were  not  convinced  by 
their  reasoning  were  influenced  by  their  feelings,  and 
all  cried  out :  'Let  us  be  independent !  Let  us  declare 
our  independence  and  defend  it  with  our  lives  and 
fortunes !'  A  committee  was  appointed  to  draw  up 
resolutions.  This  committee  was  composed  of  the 
men  who  had  planned  the  whole  proceedings,  and 
who  had  already  prepared  the  resolutions  which  it 
was  intended  should  be  submitted  to  the  general  com- 
mittee. Doctor  Ephraim  Brevard  had  drawn  up  the 
resolutions  some  time  before  and  now  reported  them 
with  amendments  as  follows : 

"  'I.  Resolved,  That  whosoever  directly  or  indi- 
rectly abets,  or  in  any  way,  form,  or  manner  counte- 
nances the  invasion  of  our  rights,  as  attempted  by  the 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  is  an  enemy  to  his 
country,  to  America,  and  to  the  rights  of  man. 

"  'II.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of  Mecklen- 
burg County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political  bonds 
which  have  connected  us  with  the  mother  country, 
and  absolve  ourselves  from  all  allegiance  to  the  Brit- 
ish crown,  abjuring  all  political  connection  with  a 
nation  that  has  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights  and 
liberties  and  inhumanly  shed  innocent  blood  of  Amer- 
icans at  Lexington. 


12  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"  'III.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  our- 
selves a  free  and  independent  people;  that  we  are, 
and  of  right  ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self-govern- 
ing people  under  the  power  of  God  and  the  General 
Congress ;  to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence 
we  solemnly  pledge  to  each  other  our  mutual  co-op- 
eration, our  lives,  our  fortunes  and  our  most  sacred 
honor. 

"  'IV.  Resolved,  That  we  hereby  ordain  and  adopt 
as  rules  of  conduct  all  and  each  of  our  former  laws, 
and  that  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  can  not  be  con- 
sidered hereafter  as  holding  any  rights,  privileges,  or 
immunities  amongst  us. 

"  'V.  Resolved,  That  all  officers,  both  civil  and 
military,  in  this  county,  be  entitled  to  exercise  the 
same  powers  and  authorities  as  heretofore;  that  every 
member  of  this  delegation  shall  henceforth  be  a  civil 
officer  and  exercise  the  powers  of  a  justice  of  the 
peace,  issue  process,  hear  and  determine  controversies 
according  to  law,  preserve  peace,  union  and  harmony 
in  the  county,  and  use  every  exertion  to  spread  the 
love  of  liberty  and  of  country  until  a  more  general 
and  better  organized  system  of  government  be  estab- 
lished. 

"  'VI.  Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions 
be  transmitted  by  express  to  the  President  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress  assembled  in  Philadelphia,  to  be 
laid  before  that  body.' 

"These  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  and 
subscribed  by  the  delegates.  James  Jack,  then  of 
Charlotte,  but  now  residing  in  the  State  of  Georgia, 
was  engaged  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  resolutions  to  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  13 

President  of  Congress,  and  directed  to  deliver  copies 
of  them  to  the  delegates  in  Congress  from  North 
Carolina.  The  President  returned  a  polite  answer  to 
the  address  which  accompanied  the  resolutions,  in 
which  he  highly  approved  of  the  measures  adopted  by 
the  delegates  of  Mecklenburg,  but  deemed  the  subject 
of  the  resolutions  premature  to  be  laid  before  Con- 
gress. Messrs.  Caswell,  Hooper  and  Hewes  for- 
warded a  joint  letter,  in  which  they  complimented  the 
people  of  Mecklenburg  for  their  zeal  in  the  common 
cause,  and  recommended  to  them  the  strict  observ- 
ance of  good  order ;  that  the  time  would  soon  come 
when  the  whole  continent  would  follow  their 
example. 

"On  the  day  that  the  resolutions  were  adopted  by 
the  delegates  in  Charlotte,  they  were  read  aloud  to 
the  people  who  had  assembled  in  the  town,  and  pro- 
claimed amidst  the  shouts  and  huzzas,  as  expressing 
the  feelings  and  determination  of  all  present.  When 
Captain  Jack  reached  Salisbury,  on  his  way  to 
Philadelphia,  the  general  court  was  sitting  and  Mr. 
Kennon,  an  attorney  at  law,  who  had  assisted  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  delegates  at  Charlotte,  was  then 
in  Salisbury.  At  the  request  of  the  judges,  Mr. 
Kennon  read  the  resolutions  aloud  in  open  court,  to 
a  large  concourse  of  people;  they  were  listened  to 
with  attention  and  approved  by  all  present. 

"The  delegates  at  Charlotte  being  empowered  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  in  their  opinion  would  best 
promote  the  common  cause,  established  a  variety  of 
regulations  for  managing  the  concerns  of  the  county. 
Courts  of  justice  were  held  under  the  direction  of  the 


14  THE  MECKLENBURG 

delegates.  For  some  months  these  courts  were  held 
at  Charlotte;  but  for  the  convenience  of  the  people 
(  for  at  that  time  Cabarrus  formed  part  of  Mecklen- 
burg), two  other  places  were  selected,  and  the  courts 
were  held  at  each  in  rotation.  The  delegates 
appointed  a  committee  of  their  body  who  were  called 
'a  committee  of  safety,  and  they  were  empowered  to 
examine  all  persons  brought  before  them  charged 
with  being  inimical  to  the  common  cause,  and  to 
send  the  military  into  the  neighboring  counties  to 
arrest  suspected  persons.  In  the  exercise  of  this 
power,  the  committee  sent  into  Lincoln  and  Rowan 
counties,  and  had  a  number  of  persons  arrested  and 
brought  before  them.  Those  who  manifested  peni- 
tence for  their  toryism,  and  took  an  oath  to  support 
the  cause  of  liberty  and  of  the  country,  were  dis- 
charged. Others  were  sent  under  guard  into  South 
Carolina  for  safe  keeping.  The  meeting  of  the  dele- 
gates at  Charlotte  and  the  proceedings  which  grew 
out  of  that  meeting,  produced  the  zeal  and  unanimity 
for  which  the  people  of  Mecklenburg  were  distin- 
guished during  the  whole  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
They  became  united  as  a  band  of  brothers,  whose 
confidence  in  each  other,  and  the  cause  which  they 
had  sworn  to  support,  was  never  shaken,  in  the 
worst  of  times." 

The  above  extract  is  copied  from  the  eleventh 
chapter  of  the  second  volume  of  Martin's  History  of 
North  Carolina. 

In  order  to  fully  appreciate  the  discussion  that  is 
to  follow  it  is  important  to  bear  in  mind,  as  the  his- 
torian says :  First,  that  the  delegates,  assembled  at 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  15 

Charlotte,  declared  the  county  of  Mecklenburg, 
North  Carolina,  independent  of  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain ;  Second,  they  established  a  code  of  laws  for 
managing  their  new  government,  and  Third,  placed  a 
"Committee  of  Safety"  in  charge  of  the  administra- 
tion. All  three  of  these  things,  remember,  were  done 
by  one  and  the  same  convention  on  May  19-20,  1775.* 
The  reason  for  thus  emphasizing  this  fact  will  appear 
as  we  proceed. 

Martin's  History  further  declares  that  the  pro- 
ceedings at  Charlotte  were  transmitted  to  Philadel- 
phia for  ratification  by  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  that  the  President,  deeming  the  subject  of  the 
resolutions  "premature,"  declined  to  submit  them  to 
that  body  for  consideration. 

This  unwillingness  to  recognize  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of  Independence,  we  infer  from  the  pro- 
ceedings, was  due  to  the  fact  that  when  the  messen- 
ger, bearing  the  declaration,  arrived  in  Philadelphia 
he  found  the  Continental  Congress  not  only  opposed 
to  independence  individually,  but  actually  preparing 
a  petition  to  King  George  the  Third,  which  was  sub- 
sequently subscribed  by  everv  member  on  July  8, 
1775,  declaring,  "We  have  not  raised  armies  with 
the  ambitious  design  of  separating  from  Great 
Britain  and  establishing  independent  States."  And, 
of  course,  any  measure  demanding  secession  from 


"The  delegates  met  on  May  19,  and  John  McKnitt  Alexander, 
the  secretary,  says,  "After  sitting  in  the  court-house  all  night, 
neither  sleepy,  hungry,  nor  fatigued,"  adopted  the  declaration 
"about  2  o'clock  A.  M.,  May  20."  See  Legislative  Pamphlet  in 
Appendix  for  Alexander's  testimony. 


16  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  mother  country  received  no  consideration  from 
Congress.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the  Continental 
Assembly,  through  its  President,  declined  to  sanc- 
tion this  bold  action  of  the  men  of  Mecklenburg, 
their  new  government  was  maintained  just  the  same 
through  its  Committee  of  Safety,  and  British 
authority  forever  ceased  at  Charlotte,  North  Caro- 
lina, on  May  20,  1775. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  delegates  in  Charlotte,  John 
McKnitt  Alexander  was  chosen  secretary,  and  thus 
became  custodian  of  the  records.  In  April,  1800, 
twenty-five  years  after  this  meeting,  these  records, 
including  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  were  burned 
with  Alexander's  dwelling.  In  the  mean  time,  how- 
ever, the  old  secretary,  as  he  is  called,  had  tran- 
scribed not  less  than  five  copies  of  the  original  res- 
olutions, and,  after  the  destruction  of  the  declara- 
tion, Alexander  made  two  additional  copies  from 
memory,  and  presented  one  of  them  to  his  friend, 
General  William  R.  Davie.  This  memory  tran- 
script is  known  to  historians  as  the  "Davie  copy." 
It  contains  many  verbal  errors,  and,  besides  being 
written  in  the  past  tense,  instead  of  the  present,  omits 
the  sixth  resolution.  Alexander,  however,  confesses 
to  a  possible  lapse  of  memory,  when  writing  the 
Davie  copy,  in  the  following  certificate  upon  its 
back: 

"The  foregoing  statement,  though  fundamen- 
tally correct,  may  not  literally  correspond  with  the 
original  record  of  the  transactions  of  said  delega- 
tion."* 

*See  Davie  copy  in  archives  of  State  University. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  17 

In  1819,  two  years  after  the  death  of  John  Mc- 
Knitt  Alexander,  an  account  of  the  proceedings  at 
Charlotte,  including  a  duplicate  of  the  Davie  copy 
of  the  resolutions,  was  published  in  the  Raleigh  Reg- 
ister, by  his  son,  Dr.  Joseph  McKnitt  Alexander, 
with  this  note  appended  : 

"The  foregoing  is  a  true  copy  of  the  papers,  on 
the  above  subject,  left  in  my  hands  by  John  McKnitt 
Alexander,  deceased." 

This  publication  was  copied  into  the  Essex1  Reg- 
ister, of  Massachusetts,  and  referred  by  John  Adams 
to  Thomas  Jefferson,  whom  it  appears  to  have  vexed 
greatly,  as  he  wrote  Mr.  Adams :  "And  you  seem  to 
think  it  [the  declaration]  genuine.  I  believe  it  spu- 
rious. I  deem  it  to  be  a  very  unjustifiable  quiz."*  In 
the  same  letter  Mr.  Jefferson  also  harshly  criticises 
the  patriotism  of  two  of  his  associate  members  of 
Congress  from  North  Carolina,  accusing  Hooper  of 
toryism  and  Hewes  of  "wavering"  in  the  American 
cause;  forgetting  that  he  himself,  with  every  other 
member  of  Congress,  was  opposed  to  independence 
at  the  time  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  was 
received  in  Philadelphia,  as  is  evidenced  by  the 
petition,  above  quoted,  which  as  already  stated  was 
subscribed  by  every  delegate  in  that  body  on  July  8, 

1775- 

With  this  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  dated  July  9, 
1819,  repudiating  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration, 
began  the  controversy  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the 
resolutions.  The  friends  of  that  venerable  states- 


*Page  314,  vol.  4,  Jefferson's  works.  This  letter  is  also  copied 
in  the  Legislative  pamphlet.     See  Appendix. 


18  THE  MECKLENBURG 

man  contending  that  it  was  impossible  for  John 
McKnitt  Alexander  to  re-write  the  resolutions  from 
memory,  and  that  in  his  effort  to  do  so  he  had  con- 
fused the  Mecklenburg  and  National  declarations 
and  introduced  several  phrases  peculiar  to  the  latter 
document.  These  friends  were  not  aware,  as  will 
appear  presently,  that  several  genuine  copies  of  the 
Mecklenburg  resolutions  were  extant,  and  in  the 
possession  of  historians  and  others  long  anterior  to 
the  burning  of  the  records  with  Alexander's  dwell- 
ing, and  had  Alexander  refrained  from  making  an 
autograph  copy  of  the  resolutions  from  memory,  the 
declaration  would  still  have  been  preserved  and  the 
long  controversy  caused  by  the  Davie  copy  avoided. 
And,  although  the  followers  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
allege  that  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  was  never 
known  previous  to  its  publication  in  the  Raleigh 
Register  in  1819,  there  is  abundant  evidence  to  prove 
that  at  least  seven  authentic  copies  of  those  resolu- 
tions were  in  existence  before  the  proceedings  of  the 
convention  were  burned  in  1800.  Of  these  seven 
transcripts,  four,  at  the  direction  of  the  delegates, 
were  transmitted  to  Congress  at  Philadelphia  by 
John  McKnitt  Alexander,  shortly  after  the  meeting 
at  Charlotte  adjourned.  One  to  the  President,  and 
one  copy  each  to  the  three  members  from  North 
Carolina.  A  fifth  copy  appeared  in  the  Cape  Fear 
Mercury  in  June,  1775,  within  thirty  days  after  the 
declaration  was  adopted.  A  sixth  copy  was  presented 
by  Alexander  to  Dr.  Hugh  Williamson,  who  was 
then  writing  a  history  of  the  State,  and  Governor 
Stokes,  in  the  preface  to  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  19 

Legislature  of  1830-31,  testifies  to  having  seen  that 
copy,  with  a  letter  from  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  in 
the  possession  of  Williamson  as  early  as  1793.  And 
a  seventh  copy  of  the  declaration,  which  the  author 
says  was  obtained  before  1800,  the  year  the  records 
were  burned,  is  preserved  in  Martin's  History  of 
North  Carolina.  . 

It  is  with  this  seventh  or  Martin  copy  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  that  we  propose  to  deal 
to-day.  And  it  is  well,  therefore,  before  proceeding 
farther,  to  inquire  who  Martin  was  and  ascertain 
his  possible  sources  of  information  as  to  the  conven- 
tion at  Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775. 

According  to  his  preface  and  the  North  Carolina 
University  Magazine  for  April,  1893,  Francois 
Xavia  Martin  in  1782,  at  the  age  of  20,  came  from 
France  to  New  Berne,  North  Carolina,  where  he 
first  taught  school,  then  published  a  newspaper,  and 
subsequently  practised  law.  In  1791-92,  by  a  reso- 
lution of  the  General  Assembly,  he  was  engaged  to 
compile  and  publish  the  British  Statutes,  then  in  use 
in  North  Carolina,  and  in  1803  to  edit  and  print  the 
private  acts  of  the  Legislature.  The  character  of 
this  work  and  the  collection  of  materials  for  a  State 
history,  which,  the  preface  says,  began  to  engage  the 
attention  of  that  author  as  early  as  1791,  required 
the  presence  of  Mr.  Martin  at  the  State  capitol, 
where  he  had  access  to  the  public  documents  and 
colonial  records.  There  he  saw  much  of  William 
Polk,  George  Graham,  and  Joseph  Graham,  who 
witnessed  the  adoption  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion, and  became  personally  acquainted  with  James 


20  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Harris  and  Robert  Irwin,  two  of  the  delegates  that 
signed  the  resolutions,  as  all  five  of  these  men, 
Wheeler's  History  says,  were  successively  members 
of  the  Legislature  from  Mecklenburg  County  from 
1791  to  1803,  the  time  Mr.  Martin  was  serving  the 
State  and  collecting  material  for  his  book. 

In  1806  Mr.  Martin  was  chosen  a  member  of  the 
General  Assembly  for  the  borough  of  New  Berne, 
when  he  was  again  associated  with  George  Graham, 
who  had  been  re-elected,  and  also  with  Nathaniel 
Alexander,  who,  at  that  time,  was  Chief  Executive 
of  North  Carolina.  Governor  Alexander,  besides 
being  a  citizen  of  Mecklenburg  County,  was  a 
brother-in-law  of  Ephraim  Brevard,  who  drew  the 
declaration,  and  a  son-in-law  of  Col.  Thomas  Polk, 
who  read  the  resolutions  aloud  from  the  court-house 
steps,  immediately  after  their  adoption,  to  the  large 
concourse  of  people  that  had  assembled  to  witness 
the  proceedings  of  the  delegates. 

Next,  Mr.  Martin's  home  was  in  Craven  County, 
where  he  personally  knew  Richard  Caswell,  who 
lived  in  the  adjoining  county  of  Dobbs,  as  both  men 
were  lawyers  and  contemporary  attorneys  at  the  bar 
of  New  Berne,  and  the  neighboring  towns  for 
several  years,  prior  to  the  death  of  Caswell  in  1789. 

Richard  Caswell  is  the  man  that  represented  the 
New  Berne  district  in  the  Continental  Congress  from 
1774  to  1776,  and  was  a  member  of  that  assembly 
when  Captain  Jack,  the  bearer  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  to  Congress,  arrived  in  Philadelphia,  and 
is  known  to  have  received  a  special  copy  of  the  reso- 
lutions from  Jack.  For,  as  before  stated,  that  messen- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  21 

ger  had  been  directed  by  the  delegates  at  Charlotte 
to  deliver  copies  of  the  proceedings  to  the  three 
members  from  North  Carolina  as  well  as  the  Presi- 
dent of  Congress.  And,  in  acknowledging  the 
receipt  of  a  copy  of  the  declaration,  Caswell,  in  a 
joint  letter  with  his  colleagues  Hewes  and  Hooper, 
predicted  that  the  whole  continent  would  soon  follow 
Mecklenburg's  example  in  declaring  independence. 
Further,  Mr.  Martin  having  been  appointed  a 
Federal  judge,  removed  to  Mississippi  in  1809,  and 
a  year  later  was  transferred  to  Louisiana.  And,  as 
we  learn  from  his  preface,  had  completed  the  manu- 
script of  the  first  two  volumes  of  his  history,  begun 
in  1791,  prior  to  leaving  North  Carolina  for  the  far 
South.  These  volumes,  which  recount  the  State's 
history,  including  the  circumstances  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration,  down  to  the  summer  of  1776,  were 
taken  by  the  author  in  manuscript  to  New  Orleans, 
to  await  the  completion  of  a  third  and  a  fourth 
volume,  for  which,  the  preface  informs  us,  there  were 
"very  ample  notes  and  materials."  But  owing  to 
a  busy  life  and  feeble  health  after  his  arrival  in 
Louisiana,  and  finding  no  opportunity  for  finishing 
volumes  three  and  four  of  his  book,  Judge  Martin, 
continues  the  preface,  printed  the  manuscript  of 
one  and  two  without  revision  in  1829.  Thus  it  is 
seen  that,  although  Martin's  History  was  not  pub- 
lished until  twenty  years  after  it  was  written  and 
ten  years  after  Mr.  Jefferson  first  questioned  the 
authenticity  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  the 
manuscript  had  been  prepared  1791  to  1809  and 
shipped  to  New  Orleans  ten  years  before  the  begin- 


22  THE  MECKLENBURG 

ning  of  the  controversy.  And  this  long  delay  in 
printing  the  manuscript — years  after  the  appearance 
of  the  Davie  copy — no  doubt  caused  Mr.  Bancroft 
and  other  noted  historians,  who  evidently  failed  to 
read  his  preface,  to  undervalue  Martin's  account  of 
what  was  done  at  Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775. 
Again,  the  adoption  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
is  recorded  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  last  volume  of 
Martin's  History,  and  for  that  reason  the  "doubters" 
contend  that  this  final  chapter  was  added  by  the 
author  after  his  book  had  been  finished,  in  order  to 
settle  the  controversy  caused  by  the  appearance  of 
the  Davie  copy,  which  John  McKnitt  Alexander  is 
known  to  have  made  from  memory.  If  this  con- 
tention of  the  opposition  is  true,  the  resolutions  in 
Martin's  History  should  be  a  copy  of  the  Davie 
resolutions,  with  which  they  do  not  agree,  for, 
according  to  Mr.  Jefferson's  friends,  there  was  no 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  extant  prior  to  1819,  when 
the  Davie  paper  appeared  in  the  Raleigh  Register. 

Next,  Prof.  Charles  Phillips,  one  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's most  ardent  supporters  in  the  North  Carolina 
University  Magazine  for  May,  1853,  not  only 
declares  that  "the  Martin  copy  of  the  declaration  is 
evidently  a  polished  edition  of  the  Davie  copy,"  but 
insinuates  that  the  sixth  resolution,  which  forms 
part  of  the  Martin  series,  but  not  that  of  Davie,  was 
added  by  the  judge.  Showing  that  Dr.  Phillips, 
like  many  other  students  of  this  question,  failed  to 
examine  Martin's  preface,  from  which  he  would 
have  discovered  that  the  Martin  resolutions  are  not 
only  older  than  the  Davie  transcript,  but  that  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  23 

Judge,  finishing  his  book  in  1809,  ten  years  before 
the  declaration  controversy  arose,  had  no  incentive 
either  to  polish  or  amend  the  Mecklenburg  resolu- 
tions. Besides,  Judge  Martin's  reputation  as  a 
jurist  and  historian  would  have  forbidden  such 
trifling  with  history. 

Further,  the  assertion  that  the  chapter  containing 
the  declaration  is  a  supplement  to  Martin's  History 
is  also  contradicted  by  the  arrangement  of  the  book, 
which  is  written  in  annals — each  event  recorded 
under  the  year  in  which  it  happened.  For  example, 
chapter  ten  of  the  second  volume  is  filled  with  events 
occurring  in  1774-75  and  chapter  eleven,  which 
describes  the  adoption  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion, with  those  of  1775-76.  And  the  proceedings 
of  the  delegates  at  Charlotte  are  recorded  under  the 
year  1775,  and  followed  by  other  incidents  of  North 
Carolina  history  in  their  chronological  order,  down 
to  August,  1776,  where  the  volume  ends. 

Again,  Martin's  manuscript  is  shown  to  have  been 
neither  revised  nor  enlarged  after  1809,  when  the 
author  became  a  citizen  of  Louisiana,  by  the  fact  that 
he  refers  to  Captain  Jack,  in  the  extract  from  his  his- 
tory quoted  in  the  opening  of  our  address,  as  still 
living,  where  he  says,  "James  Jack,  then  of  Charlotte, 
but  now  residing  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  was 
engaged  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  resolutions  to  the 
President  of  Congress."  Yet  we  find  in  Hunter's 
Sketches  of  Western  North  Carolina  that  Jack  died 
in  1822,  seven  years  before  Martin's  History  went  to 
press.  That  the  publication  of  Martin's  book  was 
deferred  long  after  the  author  had  written  it  and 


24  THE  MECKLENBURG 

removed  to  the  far  South  is  made  evident  by  the  fol- 
lowing assertion  in  the  preface :  "The  determination 
has  been  taken  to  put  the  work  to  press  in  the  condi- 
tion it  was  when  it  reached  New  Orleans;  this  has 
prevented  any  use  being  made  of  Williamson's  His- 
tory of  North  Carolina  (printed  in  1812),  a  copy  of 
which  did  not  reach  the  writer's  hands  till  after  his 
arrival  in  Louisiana." 

And  the  truthfulness  of  Martin's  History  is  shown 
by  the  care  with  which  the  work  was  prepared.  For 
example,  at  the  close  of  each  chapter  the  author  cites 
the  source  or  sources  from  which  its  contents  were 
derived.  And  at  the  end  of  that  describing  the 
adoption  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  the  reader 
is  referred  to  "records,  magazines,  gazettes"  as  the 
contemporary  publications  from  which  the  author's 
facts  were  obtained.  And,  of  course,  the  newspaper 
from  which  the  historian  procured  his  account  of 
the  proceedings  at  Charlotte  could  have  been  no 
other  than  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  of  June,  1775,  as 
that  is  the  only  gazette  known  to  have  printed  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence  prior  to 
the  writing  of  Martin's  History  or  the  burning  of 
the  original  resolutions  with  John  McKnitt  Alex- 
ander's residence  in  April,  1800. 

Additional  proof  that  the  copy  of  the  resolutions, 
printed  by  Martin,  were  transcribed  before  the 
original  series  were  burned  with  Alexander's  resi- 
dence, is  furnished  by  the  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks, 
D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  whose  reputation  as  a  divine  is  a 
sufficient  guarantee  of  his  loyalty  to  the  truth.  On 
May  20,  1857,  Dr.  Hawks  delivered  the  anniversary 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  25 

address  of  the  twentieth  of  May  celebration  at  Char- 
lotte, and  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  said  that  some 
years  before,  when  he  and  Judge  Martin  resided  in 
New  Orleans,  he  asked  that  historian  where  and 
when  he  procured  the  copy  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  printed  in  his  book,  to  which  the  Judge 
replied,  "In  the  western  part  of  the  State,  prior  to 
the  year  1800."  Whether  it  was  a  manuscript  or 
newspaper  copy  is  not  stated,  but  probably  the  latter, 
as  Mr.  Martin  also  said,  "It  was  not  obtained  from 
Alexander." 

Such   is   the   history   of   Martin   the   historian. 
From  it  we  have  ascertained : 

1 i )  That  Martin  was  engaged  from  1791  to  1809, 
nearly  twenty  years,  in  work  which  gave  him  official 
access  to  the  public  documents  and  colonial  records 
of   North   Carolina,    and,    as   his  book   states,   he 
gleaned  from  the  contemporary  records,  magazines, 
and  gazettes  all  data  pertinent  to  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration ; 

(2)  That  Martin  possessed  a  copy  of  that  declara- 
tion made  before  April,   1800,  when  the  original 
resolutions  were  burned  with  John  McKnitt  Alex- 
ander's house,  and  had  also  read  the  proceedings  of 
the  delegates  printed  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  of 
June,  1775; 

(3)  That  while  collecting  materials  for  his  his- 
tory Martin  was  daily  associated  with  five  members 
of  the  Legislature  from  Mecklenburg  County  that 
were  present  when  the  declaration  was  adopted — 
two  of  whom  signed  the  resolutions.     And  Martin 
had  previously  known  personally  at  least  one  mem- 


26  THE  MECKLENBURG 

her  of  the  Continental  Congress  that  received  a 
special  copy  of  the  declaration  from  the  delegates  at 
Charlotte ;  And 

(4)  That  at  the  time  Martin's  account  of  the 
convention  was  prepared,  1791  to  1809,  all  the  facts 
he  recorded  were  to  be  had  from  living  witnesses,  a 
privilege  seldom  enjoyed  by  historians. 

Having  ascertained  the  possible  sources  of 
Martin's  information,  and  seen  the  importance  of 
examining  the  preface  to  a  history  before  discredit- 
ing the  author's  narrative,  we  will  now  examine  the 
data  of  Major  Alexander  Garden,  who  wrote 
"Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revolution,"  in  which 
he  corroborates  Martin  as  to  the  date  and  action  of 
the  Mecklenburg  convention,  and  learn  Garden's 
opportunities  for  obtaining  information  upon  that 
subject. 

Alexander  Garden  was  a  citizen  of  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  and  an  officer  in  Lee's  famous 
legion,  in  which  command  page  235  of  Wheeler's 
History  of  North  Carolina  says  there  were  also 
troops  from  Mecklenburg  County.  Later  Major 
Garden  was  appointed  aide-de-camp  to  General 
Greene,  where  he  was  constantly  associated  with 
Thomas  Polk,  another  member  of  Greene's  staff. 
This  being  the  same  Colonel  Polk  who,  immediately 
after  signing  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  read  the 
resolutions  aloud  to  the  large  concourse  of  people 
that  assembled  at  Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775,  to 
witness  the  proceedings  of  the  delegates.  And  at 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  Major  Garden 
returned  to  his  home  in  Charleston,  to  which  city  his 


27 

Mecklenburg-  comrade-in-arms  made  frequent  jour- 
neys, as  in  those  days  Charleston  was  the  market  in 
which  the  farmers  of  that  county  sold  their  crops 
and  the  Charlotte  merchants  purchased  goods. 
Freight  was  transported  entirely  with  wagons, 
which  required  the  presence  of  their  owners  in  town 
to  superintend  the  handling  of  their  produce  and 
merchandise.  These  constant  visits  of  Mecklenburg 
veterans  no  doubt  afforded  Major  Garden  ample 
opportunity  for  ascertaining  the  facts  as  to  the  action 
of  the  delegates  at  Charlotte  in  May,  1775.  Further, 
I  am  informed  that  Garden  was  a  member  of  the 
Charleston  Library,  an  important  circumstance  as 
we  shall  see  farther  on,  and  when  collecting  material 
for  his  anecdotes,  thoroughly  examined  all  the  news- 
paper files  of  that  institution,  as  is  abundantly  proved 
by  the  large  number  of  extracts  copied  from  them 
into  his  book.  Besides,  there  were  other  avenues 
of  information  open  to  Major  Garden,  as  in  the  same 
command  with  him  during  the  Revolutionary  War 
was  his  personal  friend  Dr.  William  Read,  another 
citizen  of  Charleston.  Dr.  Read  at  one  period 
of  the  war  was  a  member  of  General  Wash- 
ington's staff,  and  in  1781  was  appointed  by  Con- 
gress hospital  physician  for  the  Department  of  the 
South,  with  headquarters  at  Charlotte,  North  Caro- 
lina,* where  he  was  for  some  time  closely  associated 
with  Ephraim  Brevard,  who  drew  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  and  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  the 


*Doctor  Toner's  manuscript  collection  of  "Biographical  Data 
Regarding  American  Physicians,"  preserved  in  Congressional 
Library,  Washington,  D.  C. 


28  THE  MECKLENBURG 

secretary  of  the  convention  that  adopted  it,  as 
Brevard  was  a  patient  of  Dr.  Read  in  the  home  of 
Alexander  for  many  weeks  immediately  preceding 
his  death  in  1781.  And  on  page  181  of  the  appendix 
to  his  manuscript  work  upon  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of  Independence,  preserved  in  the 
Thwait  Library  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  Lyman 
Draper  states  that  "Dr.  Brevard,"  who  had  been  a 
prisoner  at  Charleston,  "when  at  length  set  at  liberty, 
reached  the  home  of  his  friend  John  McKnitt  Alex- 
ander, where  he  lingered  several  months,  his  disease 
baffling  the  best  medical  skill,  Dr.  William  Read, 
Physician  General  of  the  Southern  Army,  visiting 
him  from  Charlotte."  And  we  are  informed  by 
Major  Garden  himself  that  some  of  the  historical 
items  in  "Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revolution" 
were  obtained  from  Dr.  Read.  For  example,  after 
describing  the  action  of  the  delegates  in  May,  1775, 
Garden  adds :  "Of  the  zeal  of  the  inhabitants  in 
the  vicinity  of  Charlotte  and  Salisbury  in  favor  of 
the  cause  of  their  country,  my  friend  Dr.  William 
Read  has  recently  given  striking  proof." 

The  first  series  of  "Anecdotes  of  the  American 
Revolution"  were  published  by  Garden  in  1822,  the 
second  series  in  1828,  and  the  whole  reprinted  in 
three  volumes  in  1865.  The  circumstances  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  are  narrated  on  pages  7, 
8  and  9  of  the  third  volume,  and  the  account  of  the 
meeting  at  Charlotte  is  the  same  as  that  recorded  by 
Martin,  only  more  condensed,  and  like  Martin's 
version  evidently  taken  from  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury 
of  June,  1775.  For,  upon  comparing  the  two 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  29 

descriptions  of  the  convention,  as  recorded  in 
Martin's  History  of  North  Carolina  and  "Anecdotes 
of  the  American  Revolution,"  the  reader  will  find 
the  date  of  the  meeting-,  the  language  of  the  resolu- 
tions, and  often  whole  sentences  in  the  two  narra- 
tives to  be  literally  the  same,  thereby  proving  them 
to  have  come  from  a  common  source.  And  in 
neither  account  is  there  any  evidence  that  Martin  or 
Garden  knew  of  the  Davie  copy  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  at  the  time  their  histories  were  written. 
Garden  could  not  have  copied  his  narrative  from 
Martin's  History,  for  "Anecdotes  of  the  American 
Revolution"  was  printed  first,  in  1828,  and  Martin's 
work  one  year  later,  1829.  Besides,  in  his  address 
at  Charlotte,  before  referred  to.  Dr.  Hawks  states 
that  Judge  Martin  had  told  him  that  he  did  not  give 
Garden  a  copy  of  the  resolutions,  or  know  that  he 
possessed  one.  Neither  could  Martin  have  borrowed 
from  Garden,  for  Martin  announces  in  his  preface 
that  he  "put  the  work  to  press  in  the  condition  it 
was  when  it  reached  New  Orleans,"  in  1809,  nearly 
twenty  years  before  Garden's  book  was  printed. 
Thus  Martin  and  Garden,  working1  independently  of 
each  other,  and  upon  materials  only  in  part  the  same, 
arrive  at  the  same  conclusion  as  to  what  was  done 
at  Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775.  And  in  this  con- 
nection it  is  well  to  remember  that  Martin  and 
Garden,  of  all  writers  on  this  subject,  are  the  only 
historians  that  personally  knew  men  that  were 
present  when  the  declaration  was  made,  and  that 
Martin's  History  and  "Anecdotes  of  the  American 


30  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Revolution"  are  only  discredited  by  doubting  critics 
who  have  no  personal  knowledge  of  the  events  which 
Martin  and  Garden  describe. 

Excepting  the  official  papers  of  the  Colonial 
Governor  of  North  Carolina,  which  will  be  consid- 
ered in  their  proper  place,  the  earliest  documentary 
reference  to  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, of  which  there  is  any  record,  is  found  in 
"The  Mecklenburg  Censor,"  a  poem  written  in  1777 
by  Adam  Brevard,  a  brother  of  the  author  of  the 
twentieth  of  May  resolutions.  The  genuineness  of 
the  "Censor"  is  vouched  for  by  Wheeler's  History 
of  North  Carolina,  Lyman  Draper's  manuscript  in 
the  Thwait  Library,  and  Hon.  David  L.  Swain,  then 
president  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  in 
whose  possession  the  original  poem  was  at  the  time 
of  his  death  in  1868.  And  in  the  appendix  of 
Draper's  manuscript  there  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  from 
Governor  Swain  to  Hon.  George  Bancroft,  the  his- 
torian, dated  March  18,  1858,  which  reads:  "The 
poem  to  which  I  refer  above  bears  date  March  18, 
1777,  extends  through  two  hundred  and  sixty  lines, 
and  is  of  unquestionable  authenticity.  It  opens  as 
follows : 

"THE  MECKLENBURG  CENSOR. 

"When  Mecklenburg's  fantastic  rabble, 
Renowned  for  censure,  scold  and  gabble, 
In  Charlotte  met  in  giddy  council, 
To  lay  the  constitution's  ground-sill, 
By  choosing  men  both  learned  and  wise, 
Who  clearly  could  with  half  shut  eyes, 
See  mill-stones  through  or  spy  a  plot, 
Whether  existed  such  or  not; 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  i31 

Who  always  could  at  noon  define 

Whether  the  sun  or  moon  did  shine, 

And  by  philosophy  tell  whether, 

It  was  dark  or  sunny  weather, 

And  sometimes,  when-  their  wits  were  nice, 

Could  well  distinguish  men  from  mice. 

First  to  withdraw  from  British  trust, 

In  congress,  they,  the  very  first, 

Their  Independence  did  declare." 

Here  Adam  Brevard,  who  witnessed  the  proceed- 
ing's of  the  delegates,  testifies  over  his  own  signature, 
less  than  two  years  after  the  meeting-,  that  those 
delegates  did  "withdraw  from  British  trust"  earlier 
than  the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia. 

The  next  proof,  in  chronological  order,  that 
Mecklenburg  County  declared  her  independence  of 
Great  Britain  in  May,  1775,  is  found  in  numerous 
deeds  which  were  executed  during  and  immediately 
after  the  Revolutionary  War,  and  are  now  on  file  in 
the  court-house  at  Charlotte.  For  after  independence 
had  been  resolved  upon  by  the  men  of  Mecklenburg, 
and  long  before  liberty  was  won  by  America,  owing 
to  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs,  there  was  among 
the  people  of  the  county  a  great  diversity  as  to  the 
manner  of  drawing  deeds.  And,  as  no  fixed  stand- 
ard of  preparation  was  in  vogue,  as  many  as  three 
different  styles  of  these  documents  are  preserved 
among  the  county  records.  Some  of  these  transfers 
of  property  are  dated  "in  the  reign  of  King  George 
the  Third;"  some,  prepared  by  patriots  of  strong 
local  pride,  reckon  the  time  of  "our  independence" 
from  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  while  others 
recite  the  date  of  their  execution  from  "American 


32  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Independence."  "King  George  deeds"  were  not 
recorded  after  the  year  1777,  while  those  relating 
to  "our  independence"  and  "American  Independ- 
ence" were  both  registered  as  late  as  1799,  when, 
most  of  the  county's  Revolutionary  veterans  having 
passed  away,  the  National  Declaration  became  the 
sole  standard. 

These  Mecklenburg  Declaration  indentures,  of 
which  we  quote  several,  read : 

(1)  "This    indenture    made    this    I3th    day    of 
February,  1779,  and  in  the  fourth  year  of  our  inde- 
pendence."    Page    15,    book   36.     Robert    Harris, 
Register. 

(2)  "This  indenture  made  this  28th  day  of  Jan- 
uary, in  the  fifth  year  of  our  independence  and  the 
year  of  our  Lord  Christ  1780."     Page  29,  book  i. 
William  Alexander,  Register. 

(3)  "This  indenture  made  on  the  I9th  day  of 
May,  and  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1783,  and  the 
eighth  year  of  our  independence."     Page  119,  book 
2.     John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Register. 

(4)  Peter  Reap,  forgetting  that  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  was  only  a  county  affair,  dates  the  inde- 
pendence of  his  State  from  it  as  follows:     "This 
indenture  made  the  year  of  our  Lord  1789,  and  on 
the  1 8th  day  of  April,  and  being  the  I4th  year  of 
the  independence  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina." 
Page    95,    book    n.     John    McKnitt    Alexander, 
Register. 

As  these  deeds  were  executed  and  filed  thirty  and 
forty  years  prior  to  the  Mecklenburg  controversy, 
their  testimony  is  incontrovertible.  And  be  it 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  33 

remembered,  that  "our  independence,"  repeated  in 
those  deeds,  are  the  identical  words,  according-  to 
Martin's  History,  shouted  by  the  vast  throng  of 
people  that  assembled  in  Charlotte  on  May  19-20, 
1775,  and  demanded  freedom  of  their  delegates.* 

Notwithstanding  the  claim  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
friends  that  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  was  never 
heard  of  previous  to  the  publication  of  the  Davie 
copy  in  the  Raleigh  Register  in  1819,  we  find  its 
glories  proclaimed  by  a  school  boy  ten  years  anterior 
to  that  date,  when  James  Wallis,  a  pupil  of  Sugar 
Creek  Academy,  three  miles  east  of  Charlotte,  makes 
the  following  announcement  in  his  declamation  at  the 
closing  exercises  of  that  institution  on  June  i,  1809. 
Wallis's  recitation  was  printed  in  the  Raleigh 
Minerva  of  August  10,  1809,  and  copied  in  part  into 
the  Catawba  Journal  of  July  n,  1826,  which  latter 
paper  is  now  in  our  possession,  and  credits  the  boy's 
address  to  the  Minerva  of  the  above  date.  Wallis 
in  part  said:  "On  May  19,  1775,  a  day  sacredly 
exulting  to  every  Mecklenburg  bosom,  two  dele- 
gates, duly  authorized  from  each  militia  company 
in  the  county,  met  in  Charlotte.  After  a  cool  and 
deliberate  investigation  of  the  causes  and  extent  of 
our  differences  with  Great  Britain,  and  taking  a 
review  of  probable  results,  pledging  their  all  in 
support  of  their  rights  and  liberties,  they  solemnly 
entered  into  and  published  a  full  and  determined 
Declaration  of  Independence,  renouncing  forever  all 
allegiance,  dependences  or  connection  with  Great 


*See  extract  from  Martin's  History  quoted  at  the  opening 
of  this  discourse. 


34  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Britain — dissolved  all  judicial  and  military  establish- 
ments emanating  from  the  British  crown  and  estab- 
lished others  on  principles  corresponding  with  their 
declaration  which  went  into  immediate  operation,  all 
of  which  was  transmitted  to  Congress  by  express 
and  probably  expedited  the  general  Declaration  of 
Independence.  May  we  ever  act  worthy  of  such 
predecessors."  This  boy,  James  Wallis,  bear  in 
mind,  gives  substantially  the  same  account  of  the 
Charlotte  convention  as  Martin's  History.  That  is, 
the  delegates  met  in  Charlotte  on  May  19,  1775, 
declared  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  independent  of 
Great  Britain,  established  a  code  of  laws  for  the 
new  government,  and  sent  the  proceedings  to  the 
Continental  Congress.  Where  did  James  Wallis  get 
his  facts?  In  1809  neither  Martin's  History  nor 
"Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revolution"  had  been 
printed,  and  the  Davie  copy  was  not  published  until 
1819,  ten  years  subsequent  to  that  date.  His  only 
resource  then  was  spectators  and  delegates  to  the 
convention,  several  of  whom  were  then  still  living 
in  the  county,  as  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  we  know, 
survived  until  1817,  and  John  Davidson,  another 
signer,  until  1830,  and  a  few  of  the  spectators,  who 
were  much  younger  men,  still  longer. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  Rev.  Samuel  C.  Caldwell, 
the  head  of  Sugar  Creek  Academy  and  pastor  of 
Sugar  Creek  Presbyterian  Church,  under  whose 
auspices  the  school  was  conducted,  married  a 
daughter  of  John  McKnitt  Alexander  in  1793,  seven 
years  anterior  to  the  burning  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  with  Alexander's  residence,  and  no 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  35 

doubt  Mr.  Caldwell  often  saw  the  resolutions  in  the 
possession  of  his  father-in-law,  as  tradition  says  they 
were  a  favorite  topic  of  conversation  with  the  "old 
secretary."  The  Rev.  Caldwell  was  pastor  of  Sugar 
Creek  Church  from  1792  to  1826,  and  at  the  time 
of  James  Wallis's  declamation,  in  1809,  had  been 
in  charge  of  that  congregation  about  seventeen  years. 
This  gave  that  minister  ample  opportunity  to  become 
familiar  with  the  circumstances  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  as  many  of  his  flock  had  been  present 
when  it  was  adopted,  and  Abraham  Alexander,  the 
chairman  of  the  delegates,  was  an  elder  in  Sugar 
Creek  Church  for  years  previous  to  his  death  in 
1786.  And  if  Wallis's  recitation  had  contained  any 
errors,  as  to  the  proceedings  of  the  delegates  at 
Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775,  Mr.  Caldwell,  in  the 
fullness  of  his  knowledge,  would  have  corrected 
them  before  the  address  was  repeated  in  public,  as 
it  was  customary  for  the  pupils  to  rehearse  their 
"pieces"  to  the  teacher  preparatory  to  declaiming 
them  at  commencement. 

Again,  the  date  of  the  adoption  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  is  determined  by  the  following 
circumstance:  On  May  20,  1787,  the  twelfth  anni- 
versary of  the  meeting  at  Charlotte,  there  was  born 
to  Major  John  Davidson,  one  of  the  signers,  a  son, 
Benjamin  Wilson.  And  in  honor  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  Benjamin  was  called  by  his  father 
"My  Independence  Boy,"  and  to  distinguish  his 
identity  in  a  county  abounding  in  "Davidsons,"  was 
known  among  the  neighbors  as  "Independence  Ben." 
For  this  fact  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Robert  F.,  age4 


36  THE  MECKLENBURG 

seventy-five,  and  Dr.  Joseph,  aged  sixty-eight  years, 
sons  of  Benjamin  Wilson  Davidson,  who  now  reside 
in  Charlotte  and  are  men  of  the  highest  integrity. 
Ben  Davidson  died  when  about  forty-five  years  of  age 
and  is  buried  in  Hopewell  Cemetery,  where  his  tomb- 
stone now  stands  with  the  date  of  his  birth,  May  20, 
1787,  inscribed  upon  it.  In  those  days  it  was  not 
unusual  in  Mecklenburg  County  to  call  children  for 
public  events,  and  we  find  Col.  Thomas  Polk, 
another  signer,  with  a  nephew  named  Thomas 
Independence,  because  born  July  4,  1786. 

Up  to  this  stage  of  our  investigations  the  evidences 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
of  Independence  range  themselves  in  the  following 
chronological  order: 

1 i )  The  poem,  "Mecklenburg  Censor,"  of  March 

18,  1777; 

(2)  Birth  of  Benjamin  Wilson  Davidson  on  May 
20,  1787; 

(3)  The  deeds,  executed  during  and  immediately 
after  the  Revolutionary  War,  dating  our  independ- 
ence from  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration ; 

(4)  Martin's  History  of  North  Carolina,  written 
1791  to  1809,  in  which  the  author  cites  contemporary 
records,  magazines  and  gazettes  as  the  authority  for 
his  account  of  the  adoption  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  of  Independence; 

(5)  "Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revolution," 
whose  editor,  Major  Garden,  personally  knew  Col. 
Thomas  Polk  and  other  Mecklenburg  soldiers ; 

(6)  The  school  boy's   declamation  of  June   I, 
1809; 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  37 

(7)  And  the  Davie  copy  of  the  resolutions,  which, 
instead  of  being  a  cause  for  controversy,  should  be 
considered  one  of  the  best  corroborative  evidences 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration. 

As  we  said  near  the  beginning  of  our  discourse, 
when  a  duplicate  of  the  Davie  copy  was  first  printed 
in  the  Raleigh  Register  in  1819,  by  Dr.  Joseph 
McKnitt  Alexander,  son  of  "the  old  secretary,"  the 
friends  of  Thomas  Jefferson  alleged  that  John 
McKnitt  Alexander,  in  transcribing  the  resolutions 
from  memory,  confused  the  Mecklenburg  and 
National  Declarations.  .They  also  contended  that 
no  meeting,  at  which  independence  was  proclaimed, 
was  ever  held  in  Charlotte  on  any  day.  And  the 
more  zealous  of  those  partizans  charged  Dr.  Joseph 
McKnitt  Alexander  with  "tergiversation"  in  pub- 
lishing the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  at  all,  as  it  was 
"only  an  attempt  to  convict  Mr.  Jefferson  of  plagiar- 
ism, and  thus  rob  him  of  the  authorship  of  the  first 
American  Declaration  of  Independence."  At  the 
same  time  the  friends  and  neighbors  of  John 
McKnitt  Alexander  rallied  to  the  old  secretary's 
support,  but  instead  of  trying  to  show  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  as  printed  in 
the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  of  June,  1775,  they  thought- 
lessly undertook  to  prove  the  Davie  copy  of  the 
resolutions  to  be  verbally  accurate,  notwithstanding 
Alexander's  certificate  on  the  back  of  that  transcript 
claimed  them  to  be  only  "fundamentally  correct." 
Thus  the  controversy  was  joined  with  more  or  less 


321055 


38  THE  MECKLENBURG 

acrimony.  And  in  this  condition  it  remained  for 
nearly  twenty  years,  or  until  1838,  when  the  follow- 
ing resolutions  were  introduced  into  the  discussion : 

THE   THIRTY-FIRST   RESOLVES 

"CHARLOTTETOWN,  Mecklenburg  County, 
"Maysist,  1775. 

"This  day  the  Committee  of  this  county  met  and 
passed  the  following  resolves : — 

'Whereas,  By  an  address  presented  to  His 
Majesty  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  in  February 
last,  the  American  Colonies  are  declared  to  be  in  a 
state  of  actual  rebellion,  we  conceive  that  all  laws 
and  commissions  confirmed  by  or  derived  from  the 
authority  of  the  King  and  Parliament  are  annulled 
and  vacated,  and  the  former  civil  constitution  of 
these  colonies  for  the  present  wholly  suspended.  To 
provide  in  some  degree  for  the  exigencies  of  this 
county  in  the  present  alarming  period,  we  deem  it 
proper  and  necessary  to  pass  the  following  resolves, 
viz: — 

"I.  That  all  commissions,  civil  and  military,  here- 
tofore granted  by  the  crown  to  be  exercised  in  these 
colonies,  are  null  and  void,  and  the  constitution  of 
each  particular  colony  wholly  suspended. 

"II.  That  the  Provincial  Congress  of  each 
Province,  under  the  direction  of  the  Great  Con- 
tinental Congress,  is  invested  with  all  legislative  and 
executive  powers  within  their  respective  provinces, 
and  that  no  other  legislative  or  executive  power  does 
or  can  exist  at  this  time  in  any  of  these  colonies. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  39 

"III.  As  all  former  laws  are  now  suspended  in 
this  Province,  and  the  Congress  has  not  yet  provided 
others,  we  judge  it  necessary  for  the  better  preserva- 
tion of  good  order,  to  form  certain  rules  and  regula- 
tions for  the  Internal  Government  of  this  county, 
until  laws  shall  be  provided  for  us  by  the  Congress. 

"IV.  That  the  inhabitants  of  this  county  do  meet 
on  a  certain  day  appointed  by  the  Committee,  and 
having  formed  themselves  into  nine  companies  (to 
wit:  eight  for  the  county  and  one  for  the  town),  do 
choose  a  colonel  and  other  military  officers,  who  shall 
hold  and  exercise  their  several  powers  by  virtue  of 
the  choice,  and  independent  of  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain,  and  former  constitution  of  this  province. 

"V.  That  for  the  better  preservation  of  the  peace 
and  administration  of  justice,  each  of  those  com- 
panies do  choose  from  their  own  body  two  discreet 
freeholders,  who  shall  be  empowered  each  by  him- 
self, and  singly,  to  decide  and  determine  all  matters 
of  controversy  arising  within  said  company,  under 
the  sum  of  twenty  shillings,  and  jointly  and  together 
all  controversies  under  the  sum  of  forty  shillings, 
yet  so  as  their  decisions  may  admit  of  appeal  to  the 
Convention  of  the  Select  Men  of  the  County,  and 
also  that  any  one  of  these  men  shall  have  power  to 
examine  and  commit  to  confinement  persons  accused 
of  petit  larceny. 

"VI.  That  those  two  select  men  thus  chosen  do 
jointly  and  together  choose  from  the  body  of  their 
particular  company  two  persons  to  act  as  constables, 
who  may  assist  them  in  the  execution  of  their  office. 


40  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"VII.  That  upon  the  complaint  of  any  persons  to 
either  of  these  select  men,  he  do  issue  his  warrant 
directed  to  the  constable,  commanding  him  to  bring 
the  aggressor  before  him  to  answer  said  complaint. 

"VIII.  That  these  select  eighteen  select  men  thus 
appointed  do  meet  every  third  Thursday  in  January, 
April,  July  and  October  at  the  Court-House  in 
Charlotte,  to  hear  and  determine  all  matters  of  con- 
troversy for  sums  exceeding  40$.,  also  appeals ;  and 
in  case  of  felony  to  commit  the  persons  convicted 
thereof  to  close  confinement  until  the  Provincial 
Congress  shall  provide  and  establish  laws  and  modes 
of  proceeding  in  all  such  cases. 

"IX.  That  these  eighteen  select  men  thus  con- 
vened do  choose  a  clerk,  to  record  the  transactions 
of  said  convention,  and  that  said  clerk,  upon  the 
application  of  any  person  or  persons  aggrieved,  do 
issue  his  warrant  to  any  of  the  constables  of  the 
company  to  which  the  offender  belongs,  directing 
said  constable  to  summon  and  warn  said  offender 
to  appear  before  said  convention  at  their  next  sitting, 
to  answer  the  aforesaid  complaint. 

"X.  That  any  person  making  complaint,  upon 
oath,  to  the  clerk,  or  any  member  of  the  convention, 
that  he  has  reason  to  suspect  that  any  person  or 
persons  indebted  to  him  in  a  sum  above  forty  shill- 
ings intend  clandestinely  to  withdraw  from  the 
county  without  paying  the  debt,  the  clerk  or  such 
member  shall  issue  his  warrant  to  the  constable, 
commanding  him  to  take  said  person  or  persons  into 
safe  custody  until  the  next  sitting  of  the  convention. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  41 

"XL  That  when  a  debtor  for  a  sum  above  forty 
shillings  shall  abscond  and  leave  the  county,  the 
warrant  granted  as  aforesaid  shall  extend  to  any 
goods  or  chattels  of  said  debtor  as  may  be  found, 
and  such  goods  or  chattels  be  seized  and  held  in 
custody  by  the  constable  for  the  space  of  thirty  days, 
in  which  time,  if  the  debtor  fail  to  return  and  dis- 
charge the  debt,  the  constable  shall  return  the  war- 
rant to  one  of  the  select  men  of  the  company  where 
the  goods  are  found,  who  shall  issue  orders  to  the 
constable  to  sell  such  a  part  of  said  goods  as  shall 
amount  to  the  sum  due. 

"That  when  the  debt  exceeds  forty  shillings,  the 
return  shall  be  made  to  the  convention,  who  shall 
issue  orders  for  sale. 

"XII.  That  all  receivers  and  collectors  of  quit 
rents,  public  and  county  taxes,  do  pay  the  same  into 
the  hands  of  the  chairman  of  this  Committee,  to  be 
by  them  disbursed  as  the  public  exigencies  may 
require,  and  that  such  receivers  and  collectors  pro- 
ceed no  further  in  their  office  until  they  be  approved 
of  by,  and  have  given  to  this  Committee  good  and 
sufficient  security  for  a  faithful  return  of  such 
moneys  when  collected. 

"XIII.  That  the  Committee  be  accountable  to  the 
county  for  the  application  of  all  moneys  received 
from  such  public  officers. 

"XIV.  That  all  these  officers  hold  their  commis- 
sions during  the  pleasure  of  their  several  con- 
stituents. 


42  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"XV.  That  this  Committee  will  sustain  all  dam- 
ages to  all  or  any  of  their  officers  thus  appointed, 
and  thus  acting,  on  account  of  their  obedience  and 
conformity  to  these  rules. 

"XVI.  That  whatever  person  shall  hereafter 
receive  a  commission  from  the  crown,  or  attempt  to 
exercise  any  such  commission  heretofore  received, 
shall  be  deemed  an  enemy  to  his  country;  and  upon 
confirmation  being  made  to  the  captain  of  the  com- 
pany in  which  he  resides,  the  said  company  shall 
cause  him  to  be  apprehended  and  conveyed  before 
two  select  men,  who,  upon  proof  of  the  fact,  shall 
commit  said  offender  to  safe  custody,  until  the  next 
sitting  of  the  Committee,  who  shall  deal  with  him 
as  prudence  may  direct. 

"XVII.  That  any  person  refusing  to  yield  obedi- 
ence to  the  above  rules  shall  be  considered  equally 
criminal,  and  liable  to  the  same  punishment,  as  the 
offenders  above  last  mentioned. 

"XVIII.  That  these  Resolves  be  in  full  force  and 
virtue  until  instructions  from  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress regulating  the  jurisprudence  of  the  province 
shall  provide  otherwise,  or  the  legislative  body  of 
Great  Britain  resign  its  unjust  and  arbitrary  pre- 
tensions with  respect  to  America. 

"XIX.  That  the  eight  militia  companies  in  this 
county  provide  themselves  with  proper  arms  and 
accoutrements,  and  hold  themselves  in  readiness  to 
execute  the  commands  and  directions  of  the  General 
Congress  of  this  province  and  this  Committee. 

"XX.  That  the  Committee  appoint  Col.  Thomas 
Polk  and  Dr.  Joseph  Kennedy  to  purchase  300 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  43 

pounds  of  powder,  600  pounds  of  lead,  1000  flints, 
for  the  use  of  the  militia  of  this  county,  and  deposit 
the  same  in  such  place  as  the  Committee  may  here- 
after direct. 

"Signed  by  order  of  the  Committee, 

"EPH.  BREVARD, 
"Clerk  of  the  Committee." 

These  Resolves  appeared  first  in  the  South  Carolina 
Gazette  and  County  Journal  on  June  13,  1775,  and 
on  page  48  of  his  manuscript  work  Lyman  Draper 
says  were  copied  from  that  paper,  in  an  abbreviated 
form,  into  the  New  York  Journal  of  June  29,  1775, 
and  Massachusetts  Spy  of  July  12,  1775,  and  cred- 
ited by  those  papers  to  that  of  Charleston.  Then 
these  Resolves  disappeared  and  were  entirely  for- 
gotten for  more  than  sixty  years,  or  until  Col.  Peter 
Force,  of  Washington  City,  found  them,  and 
announced  the  fact  through  the  National  Intelligencer 
in  December,  1838.  Nine  years  later,  in  1847,  Dr. 
Joseph  Johnson  discovered  this  entire  series  of 
resolutions  in  the  South  Carolina  Gazette  and 
County  Journal  deposited  in  the  Charleston  Library. 
And  about  the  same  time  Mr.  Bancroft,  the  historian, 
found  a  copy  preserved  in  the  British  State  Paper 
Office  in  London. 

Owing  to  their  date  they  are  known  as  the  Thirty- 
first  Resolves,  but  beyond  the  fact  of  their  having 
been  first  printed  in  the  Charleston  newspaper  of 
June  13,  1775,  to  which  publication  all  copies  of 
them  can  be  traced,  we  shall  see,  as  we  proceed,  that 
there  is  not  one  iota  of  evidence  that  these  resolu- 


44  THE  MECKLENBURG 

tions  were  ever  considered,  much  less  passed,  at 
Charlotte  on  May  31,  1775,  tne  date  of  their  sup- 
posed adoption.  On  the  contrary,  we  shall  find  that 
spectators  and  delegates  to  the  twentieth  of  May 
convention  testify,  and  the  official  utterances  of  the 
Governor  of  North  Carolina  at  the  time  show,  that 
resolutions,  identical  in  purpose  with  the  Thirty-first 
Resolves,  were  passed  on  the  same  day,  and  immedi- 
ately after,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was 
made.  This  of  course  left  nothing  to  be  done  by 
the  delegates  on  May  31,  1775. 

Yet,  with  this  abundance  of  evidence  available, 
some  of  the  partizans  of  Mr.  Jefferson  not  only 
allege  that  there  was  never  a  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence made  at  Charlotte,  but  insist  upon  the 
authenticity  of  the  date  of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves. 
This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  in  a  controversy  lasting 
more  than  three-quarters  of  a  century  those  partizans 
have  never  been  able  to  produce  one  particle  of 
evidence,  documentary  or  otherwise,  that  corrobor- 
ates the  date  of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves.  Whether 
this  contention  is  due  to  a  lack  of  information  on 
the  part  of  those  partizans  or  owing  to  a  hope  that 
by  their  persistence  they  could  persuade  historians 
to  accept  as  genuine  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  which 
do  not  declare  independence,  in  place  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  that  does,  and  thereby  relieve  Mr. 
Jefferson  of  the  suspicion  of  plagiarism  when  draw- 
ing the  National  Declaration,  we  can  only  conjec- 
ture. But  we  do  know,  however,  that  had  those 
would-be-protectors  of  the  ex-President  examined 
the  proceedings  of  the  Continental  Congress  of  July 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  45 

2,  1776,  they  would  have  discovered  that  Richard 
Henry  Lee,  and  not  Mr.  Jefferson,  is  responsible 
for  the  introduction  of  all  of  the  phrases  into  the 
National  Declaration  that  are  common  to  it  and  the 
Mecklenburg  document,  except  "our  lives,  fortunes 
and  sacred  honor,"  and  consequently  their  chief  is 
not  needing  defenders  from  the  charge  of  plagiarism. 
The  Thirty-first  Resolves  premise  as  their  founda- 
tion that  by  declaring  the  American  Colonies  to  be 
in  a  state  of  actual  rebellion  the  British  Parliament 
has  annulled  and  vacated  all  provincial  laws  and 
commissions  derived  from  the  King,  and  has  for  the 
present  "wholly  suspended  the  constitution  of  each 
particular  colony."  And  the  people  of  Mecklenburg 
County,  according  to  the  preamble,  in  order  "to 
provide  for  the  exigencies"  thus  arising,  decide  to 
adopt  the  Thirty-first  Resolves  for  rules  of  conduct, 
as  number  18  of  that  series  has  it,  "until  instructions 
from  the  Provincial  Congress,  regulating  the  juris- 
prudence of  the  province,  shall  provide  otherwise,  or 
the  legislative  body  of  Great  Britain  resign  its  unjust 
and  arbitrary  pretensions  with  respect  to  America." 
In  other  words,  the  Thirty-first  Resolves  are 
intended  to  be  only  a  temporary  substitute  for  British 
statutes  which  have  been  wholly  suspended ;  not  by 
the  men  of  Mecklenburg,  mind  you,  but  by  an  act  of 
the  English  Parliament.  Whereas,  in  the  declara- 
tion it  is  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County,  and 
not  Parliament,  who  "do  hereby  dissolve  the  political 
bonds  which  have  connected  us  with  the  mother 
country."  Yet  a  recent  historian,  that  either 
neglected  to  read  their  preamble  or  failed  to  corn- 


46  THE  MECKLENBURG 

prehend  its  meaning,  boldly  asserts  "that  the 
Resolves  of  May  31  proclaimed  the  independence 
of  the  United  Colonies,"  as  if  one  small  county  of 
a  province  could  usurp  the  authority  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress.  To  appreciate  how  misleading 
and  absurd  is  this  historian's  statement,  it  is  only 
necessary  to  give  the  preamble  of  the  Thirty-first 
Resolves  a  cursory  examination. 

Having  learned  the  purpose  of  the  Thirty-first 
Resolves,  let  us  inquire  into  their  origin  and  ascer- 
tain why  they  were  never  adopted  in  the  form  and 
on  the  date  in  which  they  are  printed  in  the  South 
Carolina  Gazette  and  County  Journal  of  June  13, 

1775- 

When  the  people  of  Mecklenburg  County  realized 
that  all  British  authority  in  America  had  been  wholly 
suspended  "by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1775,"  they  held  frequent  meetings,  as  the 
preamble  of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves  declares,  "To 
provide  in  some  degree  for  the  exigencies  of  this 
county  in  the  present  alarming  period."  "At  one 
of  these  meetings,"  says  Martin's  History,  "it  was 
agreed  to  elect  a  committee  of  two  delegates  from 
each  militia  company  in  the  county,  with  ample 
powers  to  adopt  such  measures  as  to  them  should 
seem  best  for  the  colony.  These  company  com- 
mittees were  to  meet  in  'general  committee'  at 
Charlotte  on  the  nineteenth  of  May.  The  forms  of 
their  proceedings  and  the  measures  to  be  proposed," 
continues  Martin,  "had  been  previously  agreed  upon 
by  the  men  at  whose  instance  the  committees  were 
assembled,  and  Dr.  Brevard  had  drawn  up  the  reso- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  47 

lutions  some  time  before."  Those  resolutions  could 
not  have  been  a  Declaration  of  Independence,  for 
the  company  committees  had  not  been  elected  with 
the  expectation  of  Mecklenburg  County's  seceding 
from  the  mother  country,  but  on  the  contrary  only 
to  provide  rules  and  regulations  in  place  of  those 
wholly  suspended  by  the  British  Parliament. 

Everything  being  arranged,  the  delegates  met  in 
Charlotte  on  the  day  appointed  to  consider  the 
so-called  Thirty-first  Resolves.  The  Rev.  Hezekiah 
James  Balch,  Dr.  Brevard  and  William  Kennon, 
according  to  Martin,  had  already  addressed  the 
general  committee  on  the  causes  which  made  the 
adoption  of  those  Resolves  desirable,  when  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  delegates  were  suddenly  interrupted 
by  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  in  Massachu- 
setts, which  had  just  arrived.  "And  this  intelli- 
gence," to  quote  Martin's  History,  "produced  the 
most  decisive  effect,  and  the  large  concourse  of 
people  that  had  assembled  to  witness  the  proceedings 
of  the  general  committee  all  cried  out:  'Let  us  be 
independent !  Let  us  declare  our  independence  and 
defend  it  with  our  lives  and  fortunes !' '  To  this 
end  a  committee  was  immediately  appointed,  "and 
this  committee,"  Martin  continues,  "was  composed 
of  the  men  who  had  planned  the  whole  proceedings, 
and  had  already  prepared  the  resolutions  which  it 
was  intended  should  be  submitted  to  the  general 
committee.  Dr.  Brevard  had  drawn  up  the  reso- 
lutions some  time  before  and  now  reported  them 
with  amendments,  etc.  They  were  unanimously 
adopted  and  subscribed  by  the  delegates."  Thus,  it 


48  THE  MECKLENBURG 

will  be  seen,  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington 
caused  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  which  were  "meant 
to  be  purely  provisional,  temporary  and  contingent 
in  their  force  and  virtue,"  to  be  amended  into  a 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

That  this  is  what  was  done  at  Charlotte  on  May 
19-20,  1775,  can  be  demonstrated  by  comparing  the 
declaration  with  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  as  follows : 
In  the  preamble  of  the  Resolves  the  American  Colo- 
nies are  declared  to  be  in  a  state  of  actual  rebellion, 
by  both  Houses  of  Parliament.  When  amended  into 
Resolve  one  of  the  declaration  this  reads,  "Invasion 
of  our  rights  as  attempted  by  the  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain."  Again,  in  that  preamble  and  in  Resolves 
one  and  three  of  the  Thirty-first,  all  American  laws 
and  commissions  derived  from  the  King  are  said  to 
be  wholly  suspended  by  act  of  Parliament.  As 
amended  into  Resolve  two  of  the  declaration  these 
same  laws,  etc.,  are  abrogated  by  the  general  com- 
mittee as  follows:  "We,  the  citizens  of  Mecklen- 
burg County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political  bonds 
which  have  connected  us  with  the  mother  country," 
etc.  Next,  Resolves  four  and  five,  of  the  Thirty- 
first,  provide  for  the  election  of  officers  "by  the 
inhabitants  of  this  county,"  and  declare  that  the 
powers  of  those  officers  shall  be  exercised  "inde- 
pendent of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain."  As 
amended  into  Resolves  four  and  five  of  the  declara- 
tion, the  laws  which  were  in  force,  prior  to  the 
arrival  of  the  news  from  Lexington,  remained  in 
statu  quo,  and  the  county  officers,  instead  of  being 
elected  by  the  voters,  were  transferred  from  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  49 

royal  to  the  new  government,  and  "entitled  to  exer- 
cise the  same  powers  and  authorities  as  heretofore," 
the  sudden  change  of  fealty  allowing  no  time  for  the 
election  of  officers.  This  precedent  was  followed  on 
May  20,  1 86 1,  when  North  Carolina  seceded  from 
the  Union,  without  displacing  even  a  magistrate  or  a 
country  postmaster. 

Additional  proof  that  the  Thirty-first  Resolves 
and  the  Declaration  of  Independence  were  presented 
to  the  general  committee  successively  for  considera- 
tion on  one  and  the  same  day  is  contained  in  the 
testimony  of  the  following  spectators  and  delegates 
to  the  convention.  For  instance,  General  Joseph 
Graham,  who  witnessed  the  proceedings,  writes  Dr. 
Joseph  McKnitt  Alexander,  son  of  the  old  secretary, 
on  October  4,  1830:  "One  among  other  reasons 
offered"  (for  calling  the  convention)  "was  that  the 
King  or  Ministry  had  by  proclamation  or  some  edict, 
declared  the  Colonies  out  of  the  protection  of  the 
British  Crown,"  which  is  substantially  the  same 
cause,  for  assembling  the  delegates,  that  is  given  in 
the  preamble  of  the  Resolves  of  the  Thirty-first. 
Then  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  the  secretary  of  the 
general  committee,  in  describing  the  proceedings  at 
Charlotte  on  May  19-20,  1775,  says  that  in  addition 
to  declaring  independence,  the  delegates  "also  added 
a  number  of  by-laws  to  regulate  their  conduct  as 
citizens."  The  identical  purpose  of  the  Thirty-first 
Resolves.  Again,  in  the  same  description  Alexander 
declares:  "From  this  delegation"  (which  made  the 
Declaration  of  Independence)  "originated  the  court 
of  inquiry  for  this  county."  Which  court  we  find 


50  THE  MECKLENBURG 

provided  for  in  Resolves  six  to  eleven  of  the  Thirty- 
first.  Another  spectator,  John  Simeson,  writes 
Col.  William  Polk  on  January  20,  1820:  "The 
same  committee"  (which  declared  independence) 
"appointed  three  men  to  secure  all  the  military  stores 
for  the  county's  use — Thomas  Polk,  John  Phifer, 
and  Joseph  Kennedy."  Which  is  the  sum  and  sub- 
stance of  Resolve  twenty  of  the  Thirty-first  except 
as  to  Phifer.  The  Rev.  Humphrey  Hunter,  also 
present  on  that  day,  testifies  that,  "Those  Resolves" 
(the  declaration)  "having  been  concurred  in,  by-laws 
and  regulations  for  the  government  of  a  standing 
committee  of  Public  Safety  were  enacted  and 
acknowledged."  Again,  George  Graham,  William 
Hutchison,  Jonas  Clark,  and  Robert  Robinson,  four 
eye-witnesses  to  the  proceedings,  unite  in  certifying: 
"That,  at  the  time  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration, 
a  committee  of  safety  for  the  county  were  elected, 
who  were  clothed  with  civil  and  military  power," 
as  is  provided  for  in  the  Thirty-first  Resolves.  The 
testimony  of  all  these  witnesses  is  contained  in  the 
Legislative  pamphlet  printed  in  the  Appendix. 

Further  proof  that  a  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  adopted  and  county  laws  passed  at  one  and  the 
same  session  of  the  general  committee  is  found  in 
a  contemporary  proclamation  of  the  Royal  Governor, 
who  read  the  proceedings  at  Charlotte  soon  after  the 
delegates  adjourned.  This  proclamation,  which  is 
dated  August  8,  1775,  and  printed  in  volume  ten 
of  the  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  recites: 
"Whereas  I  have  also  seen  a  most  infamous  publica- 
tion in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury,  importing  to  be 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  51 

Resolves  of  a  set  of  people  styling  themselves  a 
committee  for  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  [first] 
most  traitorously  declaring  the  entire  dissolution  of 
the  laws,  government  and  constitution  of  this 
country,  and  [then]  setting  up  a  system  of  rule  and 
regulation  repugnant  to  the  laws  and  subversive  to 
His  Majesty's  government." 

Next,  Judge  Martin,  who  cites  contemporary 
records,  magazines,  and  gazettes  as  authority  for  his 
statements,  affirms  in  his  history  of  North  Caro- 
lina that,  after  resolving  upon  independence,  "The 
delegates  at  Charlotte  being  empowered  to  adopt 
such  measures  as  in  their  opinion  would  best  pro- 
mote the  common  cause  [also]  established  a  variety 
of  regulations  for  managing  the  concerns  of  the 
county."  The  identical  purpose  of  the  Resolves  of 
the  Thirty-first. 

Then  Major  Garden,  the  only  historian  except 
Martin  that  personally  knew  members  of  the  general 
committee,  in  his  "Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution" makes  no  mention  of  a  meeting  of  delegates 
at  Charlotte  on  May  31.  This  omission  would  be 
very  remarkable  if,  as  claimed  by  the  followers  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  it  was  the  resolves  of  that  date,  and 
not  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  that  were  adopted 
in  May,  1775.  Especially  when  we  remember  that 
at  the  time  Garden  wrote  his  book  he  was  a  member 
of  the  Charleston  Library,  in  which  was  preserved  a 
copy  of  the  South  Carolina  Gazette  and  County 
Journal  containing  the  Thirty-first  Resolves.  Gar- 
den could  not  have  failed  to  read  those  resolutions 
when  searching  the  newspaper  files  of  that  institu- 


52  THE  MECKLENBURG 

tion  for  historical  incidents.  So  here  is  a  historian 
with  the  Thirty-first  Resolves  and  members  of  the 
general  committee  both  accessible  when  preparing 
his  anecdotes,  yet  he  refers  to  no  assembly  of  dele- 
gates on  the  thirty-first  of  May.  The  inference  is 
easy.  Garden  was  informed  that  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  the  so-called  Resolves  of  the  Thir- 
ty-first were  parts  of  one  and  the  same  proceedings 
on  the  i  Qth  and  2Oth. 

Again,  although  the  South  Carolina  Gazette  and 
County  Journal  was  a  tory  paper,  the  editor  does  not 
comment  upon  the  character  of  the  Thirty-first 
Resolves,  but  simply  inserts  them  in  his  journal 
without  remark.  Showing  he  was  unwilling  to 
vouch  for  either  their  accuracy  or  the  supposed  date 
of  adoption. 

Further,  it  must  be  universally  conceded  that 
neither  the  date  nor  the  context  of  a  newspaper  arti- 
cle can  be  accepted  as  history  when,  like  the  Thirty- 
first  Resolves,  it  can  not  be  corroborated  by  even  one 
witness.  For  example,  the  New  York  Herald  of 
May  17,  1865,  contains  the  following  dispatch,  dated 
Chester,  South  Carolina,  May  12,  1865,  at  mid- 
night :  "To-day  a  detachment  of  Kilpatrick's  cavalry 
proceeded  to  Buncombe  County,  N.  C,  and  arrested 
Governor  Vance  at  the  home  of  his  father-in-law," 
whereas  the  members  of  the  Governor's  family  and 
his  friends  then  residing  in  Statesville,  Iredell 
County,  North  Carolina,  testify  that  Vance  was 
captured  in  that  town  on  his  birthday,  May  13,  1865, 
while  at  dinner  with  his  wife  and  children.  Shall 
the  future  historian  of  North  Carolina  credit  this 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  53 

unverified  telegram  in  the  Herald,  or  the  citizens  of 
Statesville  that  saw  the  federal  soldiers  remove 
Vance  from  their  midst  ? 

Through  what  channel  the  Thirty-first  Resolves 
reached  the  South  Carolina  Gazette  and  County 
Journal  is  not  known.  It  is  probable,  however,  that 
some  one  at  Charlotte,  when  writing  to  Charleston 
on  May  31,  1775,  enclosed  to  that  paper  a  copy  of 
the  resolutions  which  Martin's  History  says  Dr. 
Brevard  had  drawn  up  some  time  before  the  meet- 
ing on  the  nineteenth  of  May,  and,  as  the  resolutions 
were  without  date,  the  printer  inserted  that  of  the 
letter  which  accompanied  them. 

All  contemporary  witnesses,  without  an  exception, 
including  delegates  and  spectators  and  the  Colonial 
Governor,  who  read  the  proceedings  of  the  conven- 
tion in  print,  shortly  after  it  adjourned,  testify  that 
a  Declaration  of  Independence  was  adopted,  and 
laws  for  the  new  government  enacted  by  the  general 
committee  at  one  and  the  same  meeting.  This  left 
nothing  to  be  done  on  May  31,  1775,  and  no  one 
says  there  was  a  session  of  the  delegates  on  that  day 
except  doubting  critics  who  cannot  produce  even  one 
witness  to  prove  their  contention.  Yet  those  doubt- 
ers will  insist  that  it  was  the  Thirty-first  Resolves^ 
and  not  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  that  was 
printed  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  in  June,  1775. 
Fortunately  for  us,  the  Royal  Governor  of  North 
Carolina,  at  that  time,  has  left  among  his  colonial 
papers  several  such  minute  descriptions  of  the  trans- 
actions of  the  delegates  as  published  in  the  Mercury, 
that  there  is  no  mistaking  the  resolutions  to  which 


54  THE  MECKLENBURG 

he  refers.  His  first  mention  of  the  proceedings  at 
Charlotte  is  contained  in  his  address  to  the  Execu- 
tive Council  on  June  25,  1775,  which  is  printed  on 
pages  38  and  39,  Volume  10,  of  the  Colonial  Records 
of  North  Carolina.  There  the  Governor,  after 
enumerating  several  disloyal  occurrences  in  the 
province,  continues :  "And  the  late  most  treasonable 
publication  of  a  committee  in  the  county  of  Meck- 
lenburg, explicitly  renouncing  obedience  to  His 
Majesty's  government  and  all  lawful  authority  what- 
soever, are  such  audacious  and  dangerous  proceed- 
ings, and  so  directly  tending  to  the  dissolution 
of  the  constitution  of  this  province,  that  I  have 
thought  it  indispensably  my  duty  to  advise  with  you 
on  the  measures  proper  to  be  taken  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  His  Majesty's  government  and  the  consti- 
tution of  this  country,  thus  flagrantly  insulted  and 
violated."  These  remarks  evidently  do  not  refer  to 
the  Resolves  of  the  Thirty-first,  for  we  have  already 
seen  that  those  resolutions  instead  of  "explicitly 
renouncing  obedience  to  His  Majesty's  govern- 
ment," positively  declare,  in  number  18  of  that 
series,  that  they  are  only  intended  to  "be  in  full  force 
and  virtue  until  *  *  *  the  legislative  body  of 
Great  Britain  resign  its  unjust  and  arbitrary  preten- 
sions with  respect  to  America."  While  the  declara- 
tion fulfils  the  Governor's  description  of  the  publica- 
tion in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  as  follows,  in  Resolve 
two,  "We  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County  do 
hereby  dissolve  the  political  bonds  which  have  con- 
nected us  with  the  mother  country,  and  absolve  our- 
selves from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown." 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  55 

Again,  on  page  48  of  the  same  volume  of  those 
records  there  is  a  letter  of  the  Governor  written  to 
Earl  Dartmouth  five  days  after  the  executive  address 
and  dated  June  30,  1775,  in  which  he  remarks,  "The 
Resolves  of  the  committee  of  Mecklenburg,  which 
your  Lordship  will  find  in  the  enclosed  newspaper, 
surpass  all  the  horrid  and  treasonable  publications 
that  the  inflammatory  spirit  of  this  country  has  yet 
produced."  Here  again  there  is  no  allusion  to  the 
Resolves  of  the  Thirty-first,  for  they,  in  place  of 
being  treasonable,  expressly  set  forth  in  their  pre- 
amble that  their  intention  is  merely  "To  provide  in 
some  degree  for  the  exigencies  of  this  county  in  the 
present  alarming  period."  But  the  declaration  teems 
with  treason  in  Resolve  three,  where  it  proclaims 
"That  we  do  hereby  declare  ourselves  a  free  and 
independent  people." 

In  the  same  letter  the  Colonial  Governor  tells  Earl 
Dartmouth,  "A  copy  of  these  Resolves,  I  am 
informed,  were  sent  off  by  express  to  the  Congress 
at  Philadelphia,  as  soon  as  they  were  passed  in  the 
committee."  And  as  nothing  is  said  of  Philadelphia 
in  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  this  Provincial  Execu- 
tive must  have  obtained  his  information  as  to  the 
destination  of  the  proceedings  at  Charlotte  from 
Resolve  six  of  the  declaration,  which  he  read  in  the 
Cape  Fear  Mercury.  It  directs,  "That  a  copy  of 
these  resolutions  be  transmitted  by  express  to  the 
President  of  the  Continental  Congress,  assembled  in 
Philadelphia,  to  be  laid  before  that  body." 

Another  and  a  positive  proof  that  what  the  King's 
Governor  saw  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  in  June, 


56  THE  MECKLENBURG 

1775,  was  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, and  not  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  is  held  in  the 
unmistakable  words  of  his  contemporary  proclama- 
tion. That  manifesto,  quoted  in  another  connection, 
is  printed  on  pages  144  and  145  of  the  same  volume 
ten  of  the  records,  and  recites,  "Whereas  I  have  also 
seen  a  most  infamous  publication  in  the  Cape  Fear 
Mercury,  importing  to  be  Resolves  of  a  set  of  people 
styling  themselves  a  committee  for  the  county  of 
Mecklenburg,  most  traitorously  declaring  the  entire 
dissolution  of  the  laws,  government,  and  constitu- 
tion of  this  country."  No  advocate  of  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves  is  willing  to  admit 
that  they  declare  "the  entire  dissolution  of  the  laws, 
government,  and  constitution  of  this  country,"  as 
that  would  be  acknowledging  them  to  be  a  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  something  which  the  doubters 
insist  was  never  made  at  Charlotte,  and  therefore 
those  advocates  must  confess  that  the  Governor's 
proclamation  has  no  reference  to  the  resolutions  of 
May  31,  but  to  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  which 
declares  in  Resolve  four,  "that  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain  cannot  be  considered  hereafter  as  holding  any 
rights,  privileges,  or  immunities  amongst  us."  To 
recapitulate : 

The  Thirty-first  Resolves,  drawn  by  Dr.  Brevard 
prior  to  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  the  battle  of 
Lexington,  were  intended  as  a  substitute  for  laws 
wholly  suspended  by  an  act  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment; 

Those  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  were  prepared 
in  consequence  of  the  conflict  at  Lexington,  refer  to 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  57 

that  battle  in  their  context,  and  declare  the  laws 
abrogated  by  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County ; 

The  Thirty-first  Resolves  are  limited  as  to  time 
and  power; 

Those  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  are  treasonable 
and  permanent  in  their  action ; 

"The  Thirty-first  Resolves,"  declares  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Welling,  "are  meant  to  be  purely  provisional, 
temporary,  and  contingent  in  their  force  and  virtue" ; 

Those  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury,  according  to 
the  Royal  Governor,  proclaim  "the  entire  dissolution 
of  the  laws,  government,  and  constitution  of  this 
country" ; 

The  Thirty-first  Resolves  "do  not  contemplate 
anvthing  like  a  formal  or  definitive  separation  from 
Great  Britain" ; 

While  those  in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  are  a 
Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  Colonial  Records  contain  other  references  of 
the  Royal  Governor  of  North  Carolina  to  the  action 
of  "the  committee  for  the  county  of  Mecklenburg," 
but  we  deem  those  cited  sufficient  to  indicate  which 
series  of  resolutions  appeared  in  the  Cape  Fear 
Mercury. 

Now  that  we  know  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
of  Independence  was  published  in  the  Cape  Fear 
Mercury  as  early  as  June,  1775,  let  us  inquire  what 
became  of  that  journal  and  ascertain  why  it  cannot 
be  produced. 

As  stated  in  his  letter,  the  Provincial  Governor  of 
North  Carolina  transmitted  this  copy  of  the  Mercury 


58  THE  MECKLENBURG 

to  Earl  Dartmouth  on  June  30,  1775,  and  his  Lord- 
ship filed  it  in  the  British  State  Paper  Office  in 
London.  There  the  paper  remained  until  1837,  or 
until  the  Mecklenburg  controversy  was  well  under 
way,  and  then  disappeared  under  the  following 
circumstances : 

In  March,  1837,  the  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks, 
D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  printed  a  review  of  "Tucker's  Life  of 
Jefferson"  in  the  New  York  Review  for  that  month. 
And  in  his  criticism  Dr.  Hawks  announced  that  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  was  first  published  in  the 
Cape  Fear  Mercury  in  June,  1775,  which  paper  was 
still  preserved  in  the  Colonial  Archives  in  England. 
And,  among  other  things,  the  distinguished  reviewer 
charged  Mr.  Jefferson  with  having  plagiarised 
several  of  the  Mecklenburg  phrases  when  drawing 
the  National  Declaration.  This  accusation  so 
greatly  incensed  the  adherents  of  the  venerable  ex- 
President  that  Lyman  Draper,  in  his  manuscript, 
says  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  containing  the  proceed- 
ings at  Charlotte  was  loaned  to  Hon.  Andrew 
Stevenson,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  never 
returned. 

Mr.  Stevenson,  according  to  Appleton's  Cyclopedia 
of  American  Biography,  was  a  contemporary  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,  and  no  doubt  his  personal  friend. 
For  he  was  born  in  Virginia  in  1784,  belonged  to 
the  same  Democratic  party,  and  was  a  prominent 
member  of  the  State  Legislature  and  of  Congress 
for  twenty  years  during  the  latter  part  of  Mr. 
Jefferson's  life,  and  in  1836  became  Minister  to 
England. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  59 

What  Mr.  Stevenson  wanted  with  the  Cape  Fear 
Mercury  or  what  he  did  with  it,  we  do  not  know, 
as  he  neither  published  its  contents,  nor,  so  far  as 
we  can  discover,  informed  any  one  that  he  had  seen 
that  paper.  All  of  which  seems  very  remarkable 
when  we  are  told,  in  the  same  manuscript  of  Lyman 
Draper,  that  Jared  Sparks,  the  historian,  visited 
London  in  search  of  that  copy  of  the  Mercury  in 
1840-41,  and  of  course  must  have  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Mr.  Stevenson,  who  was  at  the  time  this 
government's  representative  at  the  Court  of  St. 
James. 

In  1838,  the  year  after  Mr.  Stevenson  borrowed 
the  Cape  Fear  Mercury,  Col.  Peter  Force,  remem- 
ber, found  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  which  discovery 
intensified  the  controversy  as  to  the  genu- 
ineness of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration.  This 
renewed  discussion  was  continued  in  the  press  of 
the  country,  by  citizens  of  Virginia  and  others,  for 
some  years,  yet  nowhere  do  we  find  that  Mr. 
Stevenson  ever  participated  in  the  debate,  although, 
with  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  in  his  possession,  he 
could  have  settled  the  controversy  for  all  time.  Mr. 
Stevenson,  on  his  return  to  America,  became  rector 
of  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  died  near  there 
in  1857,  having  lived  twenty  years  after  finding  the 
Cape  Fear  Mercury,  without  divulging  its  contents. 

The  loss  of  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  from  the 
British  State  Paper  Office  in  London  is  accounted 
for  on  page  54  of  Draper's  manuscript  as  follows: 
"A  note  in  pencil  contained  this  memorandum, 
'Taken  out  by  Mr.  Turner  for  Mr.  Stevenson, 


60  THE  MECKLENBURG 

August  15,  1837.'  It  was  evidently  never  returned. 
The  person  referred  to,  for  whose  use  it  had  been 
taken,  was  Andrew  Stevenson  of  Virginia,  then 
Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James.  Upon  Colonel 
Wheeler's  return  to  this  country  he  applied  to  Hon. 
J.  W.  Stevenson  of  Kentucky,  son  of  the  deceased 
Minister  to  England,  concerning  the  missing  copy  of 
the  Cape  Fear  Mercury,  and  the  answer  was, 
though  the  missing  copy  could  not  be  found,  dis- 
patches and  other  memoranda  among  the  deceased 
Minister's  papers  indicates  that  the  copy  had  once 
been  in  his  possession." 

That  Mr.  Stevenson  was  suspected  of  more  than 
a  passing  interest  in  the  Mecklenburg  controversy, 
while  Minister  to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  is  ascer- 
tained from  the  following  paragraph  in  "Memorials 
of  North  Carolina,"  published  in  1838,  while  Mr. 
Stevenson  was  still  a  resident  of  London.  The 
author,  J.  Seawell  Jones,  who  has  evidently  heard  of 
the  disappearance  of  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  from 
the  British  Archives  in  August,  1837,  gives  way  to 
his  vexation  thus:  "It  has  been  intimated  to  me 
by  a  friend  that  the  present  Envoy  Extraordinary 
of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  near  the 
throne  of  England,  had  been  entrusted  with  a  com- 
mission to  explore  the  archives  of  the  Colonial  Office, 
for  evidence  against  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration. 
Under  whose  superintendence  and  advice,  this 
exploring  expedition  was  got  up,  it  does  not  behoove 
me  to  say,  but  I  can  certainly  wish  its  worthy  com- 
mander whatever  success  he  may  deserve.  He  may 
depend  upon  his  deserts  being  fairly  and  thoroughly 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  61 

canvassed  whenever  the  fruits  of  his  expedition  shall 
be  disclosed  to  the  public."  Thus  the  loss  of  the 
Cape  Fear  Mercury  raises  a  presumption  against  the 
parties  who  obtained  it  and  withheld  it  from  their 
opponents  and  the  public. 

Among  other  arguments  to  disprove  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  it  is  customary 
for  the  doubters  to  cite  the  time  of  Captain  Jack's 
arrival  in  Salisbury  as  a  "settler."  And  on  page 
227  of  the  Magazine  of  American  History  for 
March,  1889,  the  Rev.  J.  C.  Welling,  D.  D.,  sup- 
posing Captain  Jack,  the  bearer  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  to  the  Continental  Congress  for  ratifica- 
tion, to  have  left  Charlotte  immediately  upon  the 
adjournment  of  the  delegates,  remarks :  "An  express 
rider  carrying  to  Philadelphia  a  copy  of  important 
proceedings  had  at  a  meeting  in  Charlotte  on  May 
20,  and  arriving  in  Salisbury,  forty  miles  from 
Charlotte,  early  in  the  month  of  June,  would  move 
the  'inextinguishable  laughter  of  the  gods'  in 
Homer."  Whereas  the  manner  in  which  this 
scholarly  writer  ignores  adverse  testimony  is 
enough  to  fell  those  deities  with  nervous  prostration. 
Had  he  but  examined  the  statement  of  John  McKnitt 
Alexander,  the  secretary  of  the  convention,  printed 
in  the  Legislative  Pamphlet,  a  copy  of  which  can  be 
found  in  the  Appendix,  Dr.  Welling  would  have 
ascertained  that  Jack,  instead  of  leaving  Charlotte 
on  May  20,  was  not  engaged  as  messenger  until 
several  days  after  that  date.  For  Alexander,  after 
describing  the  adoption  of  the  declaration,  says: 
"In  a  few  days,  a  deputation  of  said  delegation  con- 


62  THE  MECKLENBURG 

vened,  when  Capt.  James  Jack,  of  Charlotte,  was 
deputed  as  express  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia," 
etc.  And  in  the  same  pamphlet  Alexander  is  cor- 
roborated by  George  Graham,  William  Hutchison, 
Jonas  Clark,  and  Robert  Robinson,  four  citizens  of 
Mecklenburg  County,  and  all  eye-witnesses  to  the 
proceedings  of  the  delegates.  As  after  relating  the 
circumstances  of  the  declaration,  these  men  unite  in 
testifying  that,  "We  do  further  certify  and  declare 
that  in  a  few  days  after  the  delegates  adjourned, 
Capt.  James  Jack,  of  the  town  of  Charlotte,  was 
engaged  to  carry  the  Resolves  to  the  President  of 
the  Congress,  and  to  our  representatives — one  copy 
each ;  and  that  his  expenses  were  paid  by  a  voluntary 
subscription."  Thus,  upon  the  testimony  of  five 
contemporary  witnesses,  it  appears  that  Jack  was  not 
selected  as  messenger  to  Congress  until  some  days 
after  the  declaration  was  adopted,  and  was  then 
detained,  we  do  not  know  how  much  longer,  until 
a  voluntary  subscription  could  be  raised  in  the  small 
village  of  Charlotte  and  the  sparsely  settled  county 
of  Mecklenburg,  to  defray  his  expenses  of  the 
journey.  And  that  no  doubt  is  why  Jack  declares 
in  his  affidavit,  also  printed  in  the  Legislative 
pamphlet,  he  did  not  set  out  till  "the  following 
month." 

Having  traced  the  controversy  from  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's letter,  dated  July  9,  1819,  repudiating  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration,  to  the  loss  of  the  Cape 
Fear  Mercury  from  the  British  Archives,  on  August 
15,  1837,  we  will  now  turn  our  attention  to  the 
North  Carolina  Provincial  Congress,  upon  the  pro- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  63 

ceedings  of  which  the  doubters  chiefly  rely  to  dis- 
credit the  Charlotte  convention  of  May  19-20,  1775. 

This  Provincial  Assembly  met  at  Hillsborough 
on  August  20,  1775,  and  among  its  delegates  were 
four  signers  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration.  And 
the  would-be  defenders  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  from  sup- 
posed plagiarism,  contend  that  the  proceedings  of 
this  Hillsborough  Congress  were  so  thoroughly 
loyal  to  King  George  the  Third,  that  it  was  not  only 
inconsistent,  but  utterly  impossible,  for  men  that 
had  subscribed  the  twentieth  of  May  resolutions  to 
be  members  of  this  body.  Both  on  account  of  the 
oath  or  "test"  required  for  membership,  and  the 
character  of  the  proceedings  of  the  delegates.  And, 
therefore,  argue  these  would-be  defenders,  as  those 
four  men  of  Mecklenburg  did  serve  as  members  of 
this  Provincial  association,  there  never  could  have 
been  a  Declaration  of  Independence  made  at  Char- 
lotte. These  repudiators,  forgetting  that  their  argu- 
ment applies  with  equal  force  to  the  so-called 
Thirty-first  Resolves,  which  the  doubters  contend 
were  the  only  resolutions  ever  adopted  by  Mecklen- 
burg County,  as  those  same  Resolves  direct,  in  rule 
four,  that  the  affairs  of  the  community  shall  be 
conducted  "independent  of  the  crown  of  Great 
Britain." 

After  observing  how  much  in  error  were  the 
positive  assertions  of  the  Jefferson  partizans,  as  to 
which  series  of  resolutions  appeared  in  the  Cape 
Fear  Mercury  in  June,  1775,  we  are  not  willing  to 


64  THE  MECKLENBURG 

accept,  without  examination,  their  bold  declarations 
as  to  the  loyal  sentiment  pervading  the  test  oath  and 
proceedings  of  this  Hillsborough  Congress. 

A  review  of  the  situation  shows  that  in  1775 
rebellion  was  so  rife  in  North  Carolina  that  within 
one  week  after  Mecklenburg  County  declared  itself 
independent  of  Great  Britain,  Abner  Nash,  at  the 
head  of  a  committee  of  his  neighbors,  frightened 
the  King's  Governor  from  New  Berne,  the  seat  of 
government,  His  Excellency  taking  refuge  in  Fort 
Johnston  on  the  Cape  Fear  River,  from  whence  he 
was  driven,  sixty  days  later,  on  board  the  British 
gunboat  Crusier,  by  Col.  John  Ashe,  who,  with  a 
large  body  of  men,  destroyed  the  fort  and  carried 
away  the  guns.  "Fifty  days  after  the  adoption  of 
the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,"  says  the  editor  of 
the  Colonial  Records  of  North  Carolina,  "a  public 
call  was  made  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  this 
Hillsborough  Provincial  Congress,"  upon  which  the 
doubters  so  firmly  rely  to  discredit  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration.  And  as  affairs  of  the  last  importance 
were  to  be  submitted  to  it,  a  large  representation  of 
the  people  was  said  to  be  desirable.  "In  ninety  days 
from  that  declaration,"  says  the  same  editor,  "in 
spite  of  a  furious  proclamation  from  the  Royal 
Governor,  issued  from  the  man-of-war  Crusier, 
forbidding  the  people  to  elect  delegates  to  this  same 
Hillsborough  Congress,  and  offering  a  reward  for 
the  arrest  and  delivery  of  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment to  the  British  authorities,  elections  were  held 
throughout  the  entire  province,  delegates  were  duly 
chosen,  and  the  congress  met  in  open  session  at  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  65 

time  and  place  appointed.  Everybody,"  continues 
the  editor  of  the  records,  "understood  the  nature  of 
the  affairs  to  be  submitted  to  the  convention  and 
appreciated  their  vital  importance.  And,  as  desired, 
an  unprecedentedly  large  number  of  delegates  were 
selected  to  consider  them.  Two  hundred  and  four- 
teen delegates  were  elected  in  all,  and  one  hundred 
and  eighty-four  of  them  were  present.  Every  one 
of  the  thirty-five  counties,  into  which  the  province 
was  then  divided,  was  represented,  and  every 
borough  town.  The  congress  was  in  session  just 
twenty  days  and  busy  enough."  Its  proceedings 
are  recorded  on  pages  164  to  220,  inclusive,  of 
Volume  10  of  the  Colonial  Records  of  North 
Carolina. 

In  addition  to  the  four  signers  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  there  were  among  the  delegates  chosen, 
Cornelius  Harnett,  Robert  Howe,  Samuel  Ashe,  and 
Abner  Nash,  all  of  whom,  according  to  page  98, 
Volume  10  of  the  Colonial  Records,  the  King's 
Governor,  in  a  letter  dated  July  16,  1775,  one  month 
previous  to  the  assembling  of  this  Provincial  Con- 
gress, writes  Earl  Dartmouth  advising  the  British 
authorities  to  "proscribe,  as  persons  who  have 
marked  themselves  out  as  proper  subjects  for  such 
distinction  in  this  colony,  by  their  unremitting  labors 
to  promote  sedition  and  rebellion  here,  from  the 
beginning  of  the  discontents  in  America,  to  this 
time,  that  they  stand  foremost  among  the  patrons  of 
revolt  and  anarchy."  Who  would  expect  to  find 
loyalty  to  King  George  the  Third  in  a  Provincial 
Congress,  composed  of  such  delegates,  elected  under 


66  THE  MECKLENBURG 

such  circumstances?  And  to  show  how  mistaken 
the  doubters  are  in  their  estimate  of  that  convention, 
we  will  now  review  its  proceedings  and  ascertain 
whether  its  transactions  were  enacted  for  or  against 
the  interests  of  Great  Britain. 

The  congress  met  on  Sunday,  August  20,  1775, 
and  for  lack  of  a  quorum  adjourned  to  the  following 
day.  Then  Samuel  Johnston,  who  had  issued  the 
call  for  what  the  Governor  terms  this  "illegal 
assembly,"  was  chosen  moderator,  and  a  resolution 
immediately  adopted  declaring  that  those  of  the 
Regulators  who  had  fought  the  King's  army  at  the 
battle  of  Alamance,  four  years  before,  and  still 
remained  unpardoned,  "ought  to  be  protected  from 
every  attempt  to  punish  them  by  any  means  what- 
ever, and  that  this  congress  will  to  their  utmost 
protect  them  from  any  injury  to  their  persons  or 
property,  which  may  be  attempted  on  the  pretense 
of  punishing  the  said  late  insurrection  or  anything 
in  consequence  thereof."  A  sentiment,  no  doubt, 
universal  among  the  signers  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  session  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  conduct  of  John 
Coulson,  who  had  been  "charged  with  dangerous 
practices  against  the  liberties  of  America."  But  on 
no  day  do  we  find  in  the  proceedings  was  any 
investigation  made  by  this  Provincial  Congress  as 
to  the  "dangerous  practices"  against  the  rights  of 
Great  Britain.  On  the  third  day  the  following  oath, 
known  as  the  "test"  of  loyalty  to  America,  was 
adopted  and  subscribed  by  the  delegates : 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  67 

"We,  the  subscribers,  professing  our  allegiance  to 
the  King,  and  acknowledging  the  constitutional 
executive  power  of  government,  do  solemnly  pro- 
fess, testify  and  declare  that  we  do  absolutely 
believe  that  neither  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
nor  any  member  or  constituent  branch  thereof,  have 
a  right  to  impose  taxes  upon  these  colonies  to 
regulate  the  internal  police  thereof;  and  that  all 
attempts,  by  fraud  or  force,  to  establish  and  exercise 
such  claims  and  powers,  are  violations  of  the  peace 
and  security  of  the  people,  and  ought  to  be  resisted 
to  the  utmost. 

"And  that  the  people  of  this  province,  singly  and 
collectively,  are  bound  by  the  acts  and  resolutions  of 
the  Continental  and  Provincial  Congresses,  because 
in  both  they  are  freely  represented  by  persons  chosen 
by  themselves;  and  we  do  solemnly  and  sincerely 
promise  and  engage,  under  the  sanction  of  virtue, 
honor  and  the  sacred  love  of  liberty,  and  our  country, 
to  maintain  and  support  all  and  every  the  acts,  reso- 
lutions and  regulations,  of  the  said  Continental  and 
Provincial  Congresses,  to  the  utmost  of  our  powers 
and  abilities.  In  testimony  whereof,  we  have  hereto 
set  our  hands  this  23d  of  August,  1775." 

Such  is  the  test  or  oath  that  the  Jefferson  followers 
claim  destroys  all  possibility  to  there  having  been  a 
Declaration  of  Independence  at  Charlotte,  and  go  so 
far  as  to  declare  it  infamous,  if  Mecklenburg  had 
made  the  declaration  in  question,  that  her  delegates 
should  have  subscribed  this  test. 

In  a  number  of  monographs  against  the  authen- 
ticity of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  the  first  para- 


68  THE  MECKLENBURG 

graph  only  of  this  test  is  cited  as  evidence  to  that 
effect,  while  the  writers  shout,  with  their  exclama- 
tion marks,  "no  signer  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion could  subscribe  to  that!"  Whereas,  had  those 
doubters  been  frank  enough  to  print  the  entire  test, 
their  readers  would  have  seen  that  no  loyal  son  of 
Great  Britain  could  take  that  oath.  And,  as  the 
last  paragraph  of  the  test,  like  the  codicil  to  a  will, 
annulled  all  conflicting  clauses,  the  delegates,  as 
their  proceedings  prove,  considered  themselves 
bound  only  by  that.  Again,  had  the  members  of 
this  North  Carolina  Provincial  Congress  deemed 
themselves  loyal  subjects  of  England,  instead  of 
requiring  a  test  as  a  qualification  for  a  seat  in  that 
assembly,  only  the  usual  oath,  administered  to  all 
British  subjects  when  inducted  into  office,  would 
have  been  exacted  of  the  delegates.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  this  test  was  considered  so  essential,  by 
this  Hillsborough  Congress,  that  it  was  required  of 
all  officials  under  that  congress,  without  distinction 
of  person  in  this  and  the  succeeding  body  of  April 
4,  1776.  Even  after  the  passage  of  the  famous 
resolutions,  on  April  12,  1776,  instructing  the 
delegates  from  North  Carolina  in  the  Continental 
Congress  to  vote  for  American  independence,  we 
read  in  the  journal  of  April  15,  1776,  that  "William 
Hooper  and  John  Penn,  Esqs.,  delegates  of  the 
Continental  Congress,  and  members  of  this  House, 
appeared,  subscribed  the  test,  and  took  their  seats." 
And  it  may  be  a  matter  of  surprise  to  the  scrupulous 
of  this  late  day,  that  Messrs.  Hooper  and  Penn,  good 
Episcopalians,  should  thus  unnecessarily  involve 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  69 

their  consciences  by  taking  this  test  of  loyalty  to 
the  King,  if  such  it  was,  after  they  had  been 
instructed  to  vote  for  independence,  and  then,  within 
three  months,  giving  their  votes  and  subscriptions 
to  the  National  Declaration.  But  thus  it  appears  on 
record. 

Saving  the  first  two  lines,  probably  thrown  in  for 
the  sake  of  the  scrupulous  or  disaffected  members 
of  the  Provincial  Congress,  this  test  contains  an 
emphatic  denial  of  all  authority  of  Parliament  over 
the  Colonies.  And,  declaring  that  authority  should 
be  resisted  to  the  utmost,  solemnly  engages  or  agrees 
to  maintain  and  support  only  all  and  every  the  acts, 
regulations,  and  resolutions  of  the  Continental  and 
Provincial  Congresses. 

The  journal  of  this  Hillsborough  Congress  has 
always  been  regarded  by  the  people  of  North  Caro- 
lina as  a  noble  monument  of  the  patriotism  and 
wisdom  of  the  men  who  were  its  members.  It  has 
been  very  largely  extracted  from  by  Judge  Martin, 
in  his  history  of  the  State,  and  he  discovered  nothing 
in  the  test  irreconcilable  with  the  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  which  document  he  most  emphatically 
affirms.  And  an  incontrovertible  proof  that  the  test 
was  regarded  as  an  oath  of  disloyalty  to  Great 
Britain,  by  both  British  and  American  authorities, 
is  recorded  on  pages  382  and  383,  Volume  II  of 
Martin's  History,  where  the  author  describes  a  truce 
conducted  between  a  Continental  and  a  British  com- 
mander near  Cross  Creeks,  now  Fayetteville,  North 
Carolina,  in  February,  1776.  It  reads:  "General 
McDonald  marched  at  first  towards  Colonel  Moore, 


70  THE  MECKLENBURG 

and  halted,  at  some  distance  from  his  camp ;  he  sent 
an  officer,  charged  with  a  letter  to  the  Colonel, 
bewailing  the  difficulty  of  his  situation,  and  pressed, 
by  his  duty  to  the  sovereign,  to  the  fatal  necessity 
of  shedding  blood,  while  led  by  the  principles  of 
humanity  he  wished  the  event  might  be  prevented, 
by  the  submission  of  the  Colonel  and  his  party  to 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  their  country;  he 
enclosed  a  copy  of  the  governor's  proclamation  and 
his  own  manifesto,  expressing  the  hope,  that  the 
Colonel  would  coolly,  impartially,  and  deliberately 
weigh  their  contents,  and  pay  them  that  regard  that 
they  justly  merited,  from  every  friend  of  the  human 
species ;  he  proffered  to  him,  his  officers  and  men  in 
the  King's  name,  a  free  pardon  and  indemnity  for 
all  past  transgressions,  on  their  laying  down  their 
arms  and  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  con- 
cluded, that  unless  these  terms  were  accepted,  he 
must  consider  them  as  traitors  to  the  constitution, 
and  take  the  necessary  steps  to  conquer  and  subdue 
them. 

"Desirous  of  gaining  time,  Colonel  Moore  (who 
with  his  men  had  been  enlisted  by  this  North  Caro- 
lina Provincial  Congress)  amused  the  General,  till 
he  could  no  longer  temporize;  he  then  replied  that 
his  followers  and  he  were  engaged  in  a  noble  cause, 
the  most  glorious  and  honorable  in  the  world,  the 
defense  of  the  rights  of  mankind;  they  needed  no 
pardon.  In  return  for  the  Governor's  proclamation, 
he  enclosed  a  copy  of  the  test  required  by  the  late 
Provincial  Congress,  to  be  subscribed  by  every 
officer  in  the  province,  invited  him  to  subscribe  and 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  71 

offer  it  for  the  signature  of  his  officers,  and  on  their 
doing  so  and  laying  down  their  arms,  he  promised 
to  receive  them  as  brothers;  but  concluded  that  in 
case  of  their  refusal,  the  General  and  his  men  could 
only  expect  that  treatment  with  which  he  had  been 
pleased  to  threaten  him  and  his  followers." 

At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  American  rein- 
forcements arrived,  and  in  a  few  days  the  General 
with  the  oath  of  allegiance  was  the  prisoner  of  the 
Colonel  with  the  test.  Thus  we  have  the  test 
and  the  oath  of  allegiance  contrasted  in  such 
a  way  that  there  is  no  mistaking  their  difference, 
even  by  a  doubter  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

Having  seen  how  the  men  that  subscribed  it,  and 
the  British  Government  understood  the  test,  let  us 
return  to  the  proceedings  of  the  Provincial  Congress 
at  Hillsborough  that  made  it. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  the  session,  instead  of 
inviting  the  King's  Governor  to  return  to  the 
Capitol,  and  resume  the  executive  duties,  from 
which  he  had  been  chased  by  some  of  these  very 
delegates,  the  congress  created  a  committee  to 
report  a  plan  of  Provincial  Government  rendered 
necessary,  it  was  said,  by  "His  Excellency  the 
Governor  refusing  to  exercise  the  functions  of  the 
office,  by  leaving  the  province  and  retiring  on  board 
a  man-of-war,  without  any  threats  or  violence  to 
compel  him  to  such  a  measure."  As  remarked  by 
the  editor  of  the  Colonial  Records,  "The  impudence 
of  this  is  simply  sublime." 


72  THE  MECKLENBURG 

On  the  fifth  day  the  congress  took  into  considera- 
tion the  proclamation  of  the  Governor,  issued  from 
the  sloop-of-war  Crusier,  in  the  Cape  Fear  River, 
where  His  Excellency  had  taken  refuge  when  driven 
from  New  Berne  and  Fort  Johnston.  In  this  mani- 
festo the  election  of  delegates  to  this  Hillsborough 
assembly  had  been  forbidden  as  follows:  "I  do 
hereby  advise,  forewarn  and  exhort  all  His  Majesty's 
subjects  within  this  province,  to  forbear  making  any 
choice  of  delegates  to  represent  them  in  the  intended 
convention  at  Hillsborough,  as  they  would  avoid 
the  guilt  of  giving  sanction  to  an  illegal  assembly 
acting  upon  principles  subversive  of  the  happy  con- 
stitution of  this  country,  and  that  they  do  by  every 
means  in  their  power  oppose  that  dangerous  and 
unconstitutional  assembly  and  resist  its  baneful 
influence."  And  in  order  to  show  their  contempt 
for  this  British  Governor,  the  delegates  directed  his 
proclamation  to  "be  burned  by  the  common  hang- 
man." 

On  August  28,  1775,  the  ninth  day  of  the  session, 
the  Committee  of  Intelligence  reported  the  case  of 
Dunn  and  Boote,  two  loyal  attorneys  residing  in 
Salisbury  that  had  undertaken  to  detain  Captain  Jack, 
the  bearer  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  when  he 
passed  through  that  town  on  his  way  to  Philadel- 
phia. When  the  news  of  the  attempt  of  these  law- 
yers upon  Jack  reached  Charlotte,  shortly  thereafter, 
the  Committee  of  Safety,  at  the  head  of  Mecklen- 
burg's new  government,  sent  a  posse  to  Salisbury 
and  arrested  Dunn  and  Boote.  The  prisoners  were 
brought  before  the  Committee  of  Safety  at  Char- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  73 

lotte,  and  upon  trial  and  conviction,  there  being  no 
suitable  prison  nearer,  were  taken  to  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  and  confined  to  jail.  At  the  time  of 
the  seizure  Dunn  was  attorney  for  the  crown  at 
Rowan  County  court.  In  the  hope  of  procuring 
their  release,  the  wives  of  Dunn  and  Boote  had  pre- 
sented a  petition  to  this  North  Carolina  Provincial 
Congress.  But  the  delegates,  influenced,  no  doubt, 
by  the  Mecklenburg  members,  upon  investigation, 
decided  that  imprisonment  was  "necessary  and  justi- 
fiable" and  refused  to  liberate  them. 

On  September  ist  it  was  resolved  that  the  colony  be 
immediately  put  in  a  state  of  defense  and  that  one 
thousand  regular  troops  be  raised  to  fight  the  King's 
army.  On  the  second  of  the  month  William  Hooper, 
Richard  Caswell,  and  Joseph  Hewes  were  chosen  to 
represent  North  Carolina  in  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, which  body,  in  the  language  of  the  Colonial 
Governor,  was  "another  illegal  assembly." 

On  September  4th  the  King's  Governor,  through 
his  secretary,  Mr.  Biggleston,  sought  permission 
from  this  Provincial  Congress  to  remove  his  house- 
hold effects  from  New  Berne  to  his  place  of  refuge  on 
board  the  Crusier,  and  send  his  coach  and  horses  to 
the  home  of  Farquard  Campbell,  a  member  of  the 
congress.  And  the  delegates  resolved :  "That  if  Mr. 
Biggleston  should  think  proper  to  remove  on  board 
the  man-of-war  all  of  the  Governor's  effects,  as  well 
as  his  coach  and  horses  *  *  *  this  congress  is 
ever  ready  to  give  them  *  *  *  every  safeguard 
and  security ;  but  as  Mr.  Farquard  Campbell,  a  mem- 
ber of  this  congress,  has  expressed  a  sincere  desire 


74         .  THE  MECKLENBURG 

that  the  coach  and  horses  should  not  be  sent  to  his 
house  in  Cumberland,  and  is  amazed  that  such  a  pro- 
posal should  have  been  made  without  his  approbation 
or  privity,  they  conceive  that  they  can  by  no  means 
suffer  the  coach  and  horses  to  be  removed  to  Cum- 
berland County."  And  then  further  resolved :  "That 
Farquard  Campbell,  Esq.,  hath,  in  the  opinion  of  this 
congress,  conducted  himself  as  an  honest  member  of 
society  and  a  friend  to  the  American  cause ;  and  that 
any  confidential  expressions  that  have  been  dropped 
by  Governor  Martin  or  any  of  his  friends  with 
respect  to  any  reliance  they  may  have  upon  the 
services  of  the  said  Farquard  Campbell  against  the 
American  cause,  have  been  without  any  encourage- 
ment from  the  said  Farquard  Campbell,  but  have 
been  made  use  of  in  order  to  bring  his  character  into 
distrust  and  lessen  the  esteem,  which,  for  his  faithful 
services,  he  deserves  from  the  inhabitants  of  this 
province."  What  queer  resolutions  and  proceedings 
these  would  be  if,  as  claimed  by  the  Jefferson  parti- 
zans,  the  delegates,  in  order  to  become  members  of 
this  Provincial  Congress,  had  taken  an  oath  that  was 
a  test  of  loyalty  to  British  authority? 

On  Friday,  September  8,  the  delegates,  after 
spending  two  weeks  in  declaring  that  they  and  their 
constituents  would  obey  only  the  acts  and  regula- 
tions of  the  Provincial  and  Continental  Congresses, 
would  protect  the  survivors  of  the  battle  of  Ala- 
mance  from  punishment  by  Great  Britain,  after  try- 
ing John  Coulson  for  "dangerous  practices  against 
the  liberties  of  America,"  appointing  a  committee  to 
report  a  plan  of  government  subversive  of  British 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  75 

authority,  burning  His  Excellency's  proclamation  by 
the  common  hangman,  raising  troops  to  fight  the 
royal  army  and  spending  their  time  in  adopting 
many  other  measures  inimical  to  the  King  and  Par- 
liament, adopted  an  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
British  Empire  containing  this  remarkable  para- 
graph :  "We  have  been  told  that  independence  is  our 
object ;  that  we  seek  to  shake  off  all  connection  with 
the  parent  State.  Cruel  suggestion !  Do  not  all  our 
professions,  all  our  actions  uniformly  contradict 
this  ?  We  again  declare  and  we  invoke  that  Almighty 
Being  who  searches  the  recesses  of  the  human  heart 
and  knows  our  most  secret  intentions,  that  it  is  our 
most  earnest  wish  and  prayer  to  be  restored,  with  the 
other  united  Colonies,  to  the  state  in  which  we  and 
they  were  placed  before  the  year  1763." 

This  address,  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  British 
Empire,  appears  to  have  had  about  the  same  effect 
upon  the  Provincial  Congress  that  a  sermon  does  on 
the  average  congregation — all  drop  their  sins,  listen 
attentively  to  the  preacher,  approve  of  all  he  says, 
sing  the  long  metre  doxology  with  a  gusto,  and 
move  out  to  resume  their  wickedness  where  they  left 
off  Saturday  night.  And,  like  many  a  sermon,  the 
effect  of  this  address  was  not  felt  beyond  the  walls 
within  which  it  was  uttered,  and  there  is  no  evidence 
that  it  was  ever  transmitted  to  the  people  for  whom  it 
was  made.  It  was  probably  prepared  by  some  of  those 
very  delegates  who,  after  chasing  the  Governor  away, 
resolved  in  this  Hillsborough  convention  that  His 
Excellency  the  Governor  had  left  the  Province  and 


76  THE  MECKLENBURG 

retired  on  board  a  man-of-war  "without  any  threats 
or  violence  to  compel  him  to  such  a  measure."  Evi- 
dently there  were  wags  in  this  congress. 

On  the  next  day,  Saturday,  September  9,  after 
having  been  delivered  of  their  "heartfelt  effusions," 
and  feeling  better  for  the  accouchment,  the  delegates, 
like  the  aforesaid  congregation,  returned  to  their 
sedition  and  rebellion,  and  organized  a  war  estab- 
lishment, as  "a  sincere  earnest  of  our  present  and 
future  intention"  to  fight  the  army  of  His  Majesty 
King  George  the  Third,  notwithstanding  "all  our 
professions,  all  our  actions  uniformly  contradict 
this."  And,  to  insure  success,  not  only  "invoked  that 
Almighty  Being,  who  searches  the  recesses  of  the 
human  heart  and  knows  our  secret  intentions,"  but 
also  appointed  Thomas  Polk,  Adam  Alexander,  John 
Phifer,  and  John  Davidson,  four  signers  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence,  among 
other  field  officers. 

In  spite  of  this  address  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
British  Empire,  the  remainder  of  Saturday  and  the 
ensuing  Sunday,  the  last  two  days  of  the  session,  as 
the  journal  shows,  were  spent  by  these  same  delegates 
in  entirely  severing  North  Carolina  from  the  mother 
country  and  adopting  a  constitution  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  executive,  legislative,  and  the  judicial 
affairs  of  the  province,  independent  of  the  crown  of 
Great  Britain.  And,  as  the  editor  of  the  Colonial 
Records  in  this  connection  remarks :  "The  die  was 
now  cast,  and  North  Carolina  at  last  a  self-govern- 
ing commonwealth,  whose  rights  and  liberties  and 
privileges  her  people  were  ready  to  defend  with  their 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  77 

fortunes  and  lives,  and  all  this  by  the  most  deliberate, 
well-considered  action  on  the  part  of  that  same  peo- 
ple, after  a  campaign  of  forty  days,  in  which  dele- 
gates, in  numbers  without  a  parallel  then  or  since, 
were  elected,  nobody  being  taken  by  surprise,  but 
everybody  knowing  that  the  assembly  of  men  thus 
elected  would  bring  matters  to  a  crisis.  And  this  was 
done  full  eight  months  before  the  Continental  Con- 
gress advised  the  Colonies  to  change  the  form  of  their 
governments.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  too,  that  both 
New  Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  following  the 
example  of  North  Carolina,  justified  the  changes 
they  made  at  subsequent  periods  by  reason  of  the 
flight  of  their  Governors.  The  more  the  action  of 
this  great  Hillsborough  Congress  is  studied,  and  the 
events  immediately  preceding,  the  more  wonderful 
seems  the  deliberate,  well-considered  resolute  bold- 
ness of  our  ancestors." 

The  signers  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  in 
this  Hillsborough  convention,  could  have  desired 
nothing  better  than  was  planned  and  executed  by  this 
Provincial  Congress. 

They  might  well  have  said  to  their  people  at  home, 
"Our  strength  is  to  sit  still."  The  Congress  was 
effecting  all  they  desired,  and  at  its  spring  session 
the  men  of  Mecklenburg  had  the  great  satisfaction  to 
see  this  congress  nobly  resolve  on  American  inde- 
pendence, as  their  county  had  done  on  May  19-20, 
1775,  before  the  representatives  of  any  other  colony 
had  taken  this  decisive  step.  Congress  met  at  Hali- 
fax on  April  4,  1776,  and,  according  to  its  journal, 
"On  the  8th  it  was  resolved,  that  Mr.  Harnett,  Mr. 


78  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Allen  Jones,  Mr.  Burke,  Mr.  Nash,  Mr.  Kinchen, 
Mr.  Person,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Jones  be  a  select  com- 
mittee to  take  into  consideration  the  usurpations  and 
violences  attempted  and  committed  by  the  King  and 
Parliament  of  Great  Britain  against  America,  and 
the  further  measures  to  be  taken  for  frustrating  the 
same,  and  for  the  better  defense  of  this  Province." 
'On  April  12,  1776,  the  select  committee  reported :  "It 
appears  to  your  committee  that  pursuant  to  the  plan 
concerted  by  the  British  Ministry  for  the  subjuga- 
tion of  America,  the  King  and  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  have  usurped  a  power  over  the  persons  and 
properties  of  the  people  unlimited  and  uncontrolled ; 
and  disregarding  their  humble  petition  for  peace, 
liberty  and  safety,  have  made  divers  legislative  acts 
denouncing  war,  famine  and  every  species  of 
calamity  against  the  continent  in  general.  The  Brit- 
ish fleets  and  armies  have  been  and  still  are  daily 
employed  in  destroying  the  people,  and  committing 
the  most  horrid  devastations  on  the  country.  The 
Governors  in  different  colonies  have  declared  protec- 
tion to  slaves  who  should  imbrue  their  hands  in  the 
blood  of  their  masters.  That  the  ships  belonging  to 
America  are  declared  prizes  of  war,  and  many  of 
them  have  been  violently  seized  and  confiscated.  In 
consequence  of  all  which  multitudes  of  the  people 
have  been  destroyed,  or  from  easy  circumstances 
reduced  to  the  most  lamentable  distress.  And 
whereas,  the  moderation  hitherto  manifested  by  the 
united  colonies,  and  their  sincere  desire  to  be  recon- 
ciled to  the  mother  country  on  constitutional  princi- 
ples, have  procured  no  mitigation  of  the  aforesaid 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  79 

wrongs  and  usurpations,  and  no  hopes  remain  of 
obtaining  redress  by  these  means  alone,  which  have 
been  hitherto  tried,  your  committee  are  of  opinion  the 
House  should  enter  into  the  following  resolve,  to 
wit: 

"Resolved,  That  the  delegates  from  this  colony  in 
the  Continental  Congress  be  empowered  to  concur 
with  the  delegates  of  the  other  colonies  in  declaring 
Independency,  and  forming  foreign  alliances,  reserv- 
ing to  the  colony  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of 
forming  a  constitution  and  laws  for  this  colony,  and 
of  appointing  delegates  from  time  to  time  (under  the 
direction  of  a  general  representation  thereof)  to 
meet  the  delegates  of  the  other  colonies  for  such 
purposes  as  shall  be  hereafter  pointed  out. 

"The  congress  taking  the  same  into  consideration 
unanimously  concurred  therewith." 

Thus  we  see,  in  practical  results,  the  Hillsborough 
Provincial  Congress  was  the  proper  association  in 
which  men  who  had  signed  the  Mecklenburg  Decla- 
ration of  Independence  should  serve  their  country. 

This  completes  our  investigations  as  to  the  adop- 
tion and  loss  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  the  controversy  regarding  its 
genuineness.  From  a  review  of  the  evidence  we 
have  learned  that  on  May  20,  1775,  the  citizens  of 
Mecklenburg  County,  North  Carolina,  declared  them- 
selves independent  of  the  crown  of  Great  Britain. 
That  the  original  copy  of  the  resolutions  was  burned 
with  John  McKnitt  Alexander's  residence  in  the 
year  1800.  In  the  same  year  Alexander  made  a 
transcript  of  that  declaration  from  memory,  which 


80  THE  MECKLENBURG 

is  known  among  historians  as  the  Davie  copy.  In 
1819,  after  the  death  of  the  old  secretary,  his  son 
printed  an  account  of  the  Mecklenburg  convention  in 
the  Raleigh  Register.  This  publication  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  denied  its  authen- 
ticity, and  caused  a  controversy  between  his  friends 
and  those  of  Alexander,  the  former  contending 
that  John  McKnitt  Alexander  had  confused  the 
Mecklenburg  and  Philadelphia  resolutions.  Then 
Alexander's  followers,  instead  of  trying  to  show 
that  there  had  been  a  Declaration  of -Independence 
at  Charlotte,  undertook  to  prove  the  verbal  accuracy 
of  the  Davie  copy,  although  Alexander  himself  had 
certified  on  its  back  that  the  Davie  paper  was  only 
"fundamentally  correct."  And  with  the  Jefferson 
champions  alleging  that  the  Mecklenburg  Declara- 
tion was  never  heard  of  previous  to  the  Raleigh  pub- 
lication in  1819,  and  the  Alexander  defenders  insist- 
ing upon  the  accuracy  of  the  memory  copy,  the 
controversy  was  kept  up  until  1838,  when  the  Thir- 
ty-first Resolves  were  discovered.  Then  the  doubters 
shouted,  with  great  glee,  that  they  had  found  what 
Alexander  was  trying  to  remember  when  he  wrote 
the  resolutions  which  he  presented  to  General  Davie. 
But  as  the  Jefferson  people  were  unable  to  corroborate 
the  date  of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  the  Alexander 
men  stood  their  ground.  In  the  mean  time,  Martin's 
History  of  North  Carolina,  containing  a  minute 
description  of  what  had  been  done  at  Charlotte, 
appeared ;  but  as  the  controversy  had  then  been  rag- 
ing ten  years,  Martin's  narrative  was  not  accepted. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE     81 

Some  years  later  Martin's  preface  was  examined, 
and  showed  that  although  the  book  was  not  printed 
until  1829,  it  had  in  reality  been  written  1791  to 
1809,  and  finished  at  least  ten  years  before  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson precipitated  the  declaration  controversy.  And 
a  further  investigation  of  Martin's  opportunities  for 
ascertaining  the  truth  of  what  he  wrote  developed 
the  fact  that  with  the  exception  of  Major  Garden, 
who,  in  "Anecdotes  of  the  American  Revolution," 
sustains  him,  Martin  is  the  only  historian  who  per- 
sonally knew  eye-witnesses  and  participants  in  the 
Mecklenburg  convention,  and  had  access  to  the 
Cape  Fear  Mercury  that  contained  the  proceedings 
of  the  delegates.  And  Martin  is  discredited  only  by 
historians  writing  forty  and  fifty  years  after  the 
adoption  of  the  declaration,  without  any  personal 
knowledge  of  the  events  Martin  describes. 

Our  investigations  also  reveal  the  fact  that  Judge 
Martin's  statements  are  confirmed  by  the  "Mecklen- 
burg Censor"  of  March  18,  1777,  which  says  the 
delegates  at  Charlotte,  "the  very  first,  their  independ- 
ence did  declare,"  and  sustained  by  deeds  on  file  in 
the  county  court-house  dating  the  time  of  their 
execution  from  the  Mecklenburg  or  "our  independ- 
ence." Martin's  version  of  what  was  done  in  May, 
1775,.  is  also  upheld  by  Major  John  Davidson,  a 
signer,  whose  son,  born  May  20,  1787,  was  called  by 
his  father  My  Independence  Boy,  in  honor  of  the  dec- 
laration. 

If  further  evidence  were  needed  to  corroborate 
Martin  it  can  be  found  in.  the  Governor's  address  to 


82  THE  MECKLENBURG 

his  executive  council  on  June  25,  1775,  where  he 
declares  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County  were 
guilty  of  "explicitly  renouncing  obedience  to  His 
Majesty's  government  and  all  lawful  authority  what- 
soever." Also  where  that  same  Governor  recites  in 
a  proclamation  on  August  8,  1775,  that  he  has  seen 
in  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  resolutions,  of  a  commit- 
tee for  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  "declaring  the 
entire  dissolution  of  the  laws,  government  and  con- 
stitution of  this  country."  And  last,  James  Wallis,  a 
school  boy  at  Sugar  Creek  Academy,  in  his  declama- 
tion on  June  I,  1809,  reciting  the  circumstances  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration,  agrees  with  Martin  as  to 
the  character  of  the  proceedings  on  May  19-20,  1775. 
Thus  we  find  the  Mecklenburg  resolutions  referred  to 
as  a  Declaration  of  Independence  from  the  time  of 
their  passage  in  1775  until  1819,  when  Mr.  Jefferson 
undertook  to  invalidate  them.  All  contemporary 
witnesses,  without  an  exception,  testify  that  the 
result  of  the  Mecklenburg  convention  was  a  Decla- 
ration of  Independence,  and  only  those  writers  that 
appear  on  the  scene  a  half  century  after  the  event 
declare  to  the  contrary. 

Our  research  further  showed  that  although  the 
Jefferson  partizans  persistently  contend  for  the 
authenticity  of  the  Thirty-first  Resolves,  apparently 
to  protect  that  statesman  from  supposed  plagiarism, 
Richard  Henry  Lee  was  the  author  of  the  phrases 
common  to  both  declarations.  We  also  discovered 
that  the  doubters,  while  denying  the  truth  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration,  have  never  been  able  to 
produce  one  witness  testifying  to  the  genuineness  of 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  83 

the  Resolves  of  May  31,  as  printed  in  the  South  Car- 
olina Gazette  and  County  Journal  of  June  13,  1775. 
On  the  contrary,  our  examination  disclosed  the  fact 
that  spectators  and  delegates,  the  Royal  Governor 
and  Martin's  History,  one  and  all,  declare  that 
resolves  embracing  the  same  powers  as  those  of 
the  Thirty-first  were  enacted  by  the  delegates  im- 
mediately after  adopting  the  declaration,  and  this 
left  nothing  to  be  done  by  the  convention  on  the 
last  day  of  May.  We  also  learned  what  became 
of  the  Cape  Fear  Mercury  containing  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  delegates,  and  that  the  test  was 
not  an  oath  of  allegiance  to  Great  Britain,  but  a 
test  of  loyalty  to  America.  And  that  a  signer  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence  could  con- 
sistently be  a  member  of  the  North  Carolina  Provin- 
cial Congress.  And,  finally,  we  have  found  out  that 
there  is  no  doubt  of  a  Declaration  of  Independence 
having  been  made  by  Mecklenburg  County,  North 
Carolina,  on  May  20,  1775. 


THE  LIVES  OF  THE  SIGNERS  AND  A  FEW 
SPECTATORS. 

The  following  sketches  of  the  delegates  to  the 
convention  at  Charlotte  are  copied  almost  verbatim 
from  Draper's  manuscript  work  upon  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration  of  Independence,  preserved  in  the 
Thwait  Library  at  Madison,  Wisconsin : 

GEN.    THOMAS   POLK 

The  original  name  of  the  ancestors  of  the  Polks 
of  Mecklenburg  was  Muirhead,  whence  it  was 
changed  to  Pulloak,  then  to  Pollock — which  by 
obvious  transition,  assumed  its  present — as  is  evident 
by  the  will  of  Magdalene  Polk,  dated  1723,  preserved 
among  the  records  of  the  Orphans'  Court  of  Som- 
erset County,  Maryland. 

The  traditions  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  were 
not  more  quaint  and  curious  as  to  the  origin  of  their 
heroes  than  are  those  of  many  of  the  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  who  early  migrated  to  the  New  World. 
The  Polks  have  had  handed  down  to  them  a  tradition 
running  in  this  wise : 

On  a  certain  great  occasion,  away  back  in  the 
misty  past,  a  king  of  Scotland  was  marching  at  the 
head  of  an  immense  procession,  when  a  small  oak 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  85 

shrub  appeared  directly  in  front  of  His  Majesty,  to 
which  one  of  the  king's  attendants,  by  the  name  of 
Muirhead,  a  man  of  great  physical  strength,  sprang 
forward,  and  with  a  Herculean  effort,  tore  it  up  by 
the  roots  and  bore  it  out  of  the  way.  Such  an  act 
of  gallantry  prompted  the  king  to  order  a  halt,  when 
he  knighted  Muirhead  upon  the  spot,  and  changed 
his  name  to  Pulloak — pull-oak.  Another  tradition 
is  related  of  the  same  person.  An  enormous  size 
and  vicious  wild  boar  inhabited  that  region,  a  terror 
to  all  who  came  within  his  range.  A  reward  was 
offered  by  the  king  to  any  one  who  would  rid  the 
country  of  the  dreaded  monster.  Pulloak  deter- 
mined to  try  it  single-handed.  Armed  only  with  a 
bow  and  arrows,  he  sallied  forth  on  the  dangerous 
adventure.  One  version  of  the  story  is  that  when 
the  wild  boar  discovered  his  pursuer  he  rushed 
toward  the  bold  hunter,  who  climbed  an  oak  tree, 
and  from  its  branches  he  shot  the  fierce  animal. 
Another  version  of  the  story  is  that,  pursued  by  the 
enraged  boar,  Pulloak  sprang  through  an  old  church 
window,  the  boar  after  him;  but  Pulloak  instantly 
darted  out  of  the  door  and  shut  it  quickly,  and 
managed  to  close  the  window,  and  then  quietly 
returned  home.  His  neighbors  were  not  a  little 
surprised  at  his  safe  return.  In  response  to  their 
expressions  of  astonishment,  he  affected  equal  sur- 
prise, saying  with  nonchalance,  truly  a  bit  of  a  pig 
had  the  hardihood  to  run  at  him,  when  he  seized 
it  by  the  tail  and  threw  it  into  the  church  window, 
where  they  might  go  and  satisfy  themselves  of  the 
fact.  At  length  some  of  the  more  courageous  of 


86  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  number  sallied  forth  to  see  the  game  of  the 
forester,  and  were  astonished  beyond  measure  when 
they  discovered  the  "bit  of  a  pig"  was  none  other 
than  the  dreaded  wild  boar  for  whose  taking  off  the 
king  had  offered  the  large  reward.  Some  of  those 
present  argued  that  Pulloak  was  more  than  a  Sam- 
son, and  must  have  been  imbued  with  supernatural 
aid.  And  as  an  additional  evidence  of  his  fearless- 
ness, he  boldly  advanced,  and  shot  the  enraged 
animal  through  one  of  the  windows. 

The  hero  of  the  exploit,  as  the  tradition  goes, 
kept  his  own  counsel  and  it  was  many  a  long  year 
before  he  saw  fit  to  divulge  the  manner  of  his  getting 
so  dangerous  a  beast  into  the  church  alone  and  single 
handed.  The  coat  of  arms  of  the  Polk  family  is 
no  doubt  derived  from  the  latter  tradition — "Poll- 
oak,  Bar't.  Scotch;  a  boar,  passant,  pierced  by  an 
arrow."  Motto:  Audacter  et  strenne — Boldly  and 
readily.  The  boar  is  represented  with  elevated 
bristles  and  angered  mien,  transfixed  with  an  arrow. 

To  aid  in  ameliorating  the  natural  turbulence  of 
the  Irish  character,  James  I  encouraged  a  large 
emigration  into  Ireland,  and  among  those  who 
settled  in  that  part  of  Ulster  known  as  Donnegal, 
was  the  family  of  Pollocks.  Robert,  a  son  of  the 
elder  Pollock,  took  an  active  part  in  the  wars  against 
Charles  I  and  fought  side  by  side  with  Cromwell 
against  the  Royalists,  under  Rupert.  The  powder- 
horn  worn  by  Robert  Pollock  during  the  civil  wars 
is  now  in  possession  of  Col.  W.  H.  Pollock. 

Returning  home  he  married  Margarette  Tasker, 
the  widow  of  Colonel  Porter,  and  heiress  of  Mo,  a 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  87 

beautiful  estate  near  the  town  of  Giffoard;  whose 
father,  Colonel  Porter,  a  chancellor  of  Ireland,  had 
been  an  eminent  man  in  his  day. 

Robert  and  Magdalene  Pollock  reared  six  sons 
and  two  daughters..  The  father  and  sons  obtained 
grants  of  land  in  Maryland  from  Lord  Baltimore. 
John  Pollock,  or  Polk, — the  eldest  son, — in  1685 
settled  at  a  place  called  Locust  Hammock,  in  Som- 
erset County,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland. 
Thither  parents  and  children  migrated  at  an  early 
period,  and  became  prominent  and  useful  settlers  in 
the  colony. 

John  Polk,  who  first  married and  for 

his  second  wife  Joanna  Knox,  died  in  1707,  leaving 
two  children,  William  and  Nancy. 

William,  Priscilla,  Robert,  and  Thomas  Polk,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  and  the  eldest  of  eight  chil- 
dren, was  born  in  Somerset  County,  Maryland, 
about  1730.  His  father  moved  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Carlisle,  Cumberland  County,  in  1750,  then  a 
newly  settled  region  of  Pennsylvania,  fast  filling  up 
with  hardy  Scotch-Irish  emigrants. 

Thomas  Folk's  early  educational  advantages  must 
have  been  quite  respectable  for  that  day,  since  he 
fitted  himself  for  the  occupation  of  surveyor;  and 
on  attaining  the  age  of  manhood,  and  learning  of 
the  new  settlement  along  the  Catawba  Valley,  since 
known  as  Mecklenburg,  he  directed  his  course 
thither,  about  the  commencement  of  the  border 
trouble  of  I754-'S5,  the  Indian  outbreak  incited  by 


88  THE  MECKLENBURG 

French  influence  extending  from  the  frontiers  of 
New  Hampshire  to  the  back  settlements  of  the 
Carolinas. 

Thomas  Spratt  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  man 
who  moved  his  family  on  wheels  across  the  Yadkin, 
stopping  a  while  on  Rocky  River,  and  then  settling 
within  the  present  limits  of  Charlotte.  Thomas 
Polk,  when  he  arrived  at  Thomas  Spratt's,  had  only 
a  knapsack  on  his  back  and  a  goodly  share  of 
indomitable  enterprise.  He  soon  married  Susanna 
Spratt,  the  daughter  of  this  early  settler,  and  their 
son,  William,  who  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Revolutionary  War,  was  born  in  Mecklenburg 
County  in  1758.  During  the  period  of  1756  to  1760 
there  were  some  Indian  troubles  on  the  Catawba 
and  Yadkin  frontiers ;  and  it  may  well  be  supposed 
that  Thomas  Polk  here  learned  some  of  those  lessons 
of  bravery  and  leadership  which  he  displayed  so 
creditably  during  the  subsequent  years  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary War.  The  characteristics  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  Mecklenburg  are  well  described  by  an 
aged  native  of  that  region,  whose  clear  memory 
reaches  back  into  the  close  of  the  last  century.  They 
were,  he  says,  strong  in  body,  strong  in  mind,  brave 
and  patriotic. 

They  were  driven  by  persecution  from  Scotland 
and  Ireland,  and  were  called  Scotch-Irish. 

They  were  determined  to  have  liberty  or  have 
death.  They  lived  far  from  market  and  had  few 
luxuries.  Those  who  could  afford  it  had  coffee  for 
breakfast  on  Sunday  morning,  before  they  went  to 
church,  but  at  no  other  time.  Though  they  lived 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  89 

plainly,  they  lived  abundantly.  The  land  was  rich, 
producing  all  manner  of  grain,  stock  always  plenty 
and  always  fat.  The  women  were  the  best  of  cooks ; 
no  negroes  then;  no  cotton,  no  drunkards,  no 
thieves;  no  locks  on  dwellings,  corn-crib  or  smoke- 
houses. The  hardest  time  of  the  year  was  to  harvest 
their  crops.  Then  all  through  winter  they  had  little 
to  do  but  to  attend  their  stock,  pay  and  receive  visits. 
Happy  days ! 

Thomas  Polk  was  originally  a  surveyor,  says  Dr. 
Johnson  in  his  traditions  of  the  revolution  in  the 
southwestern  part  of  North  Carolina;  his  education 
was  not  acquired  within  the  classic  walls  of  a  college, 
but  partially  obtained  at  intervals  from  his  occupa- 
tions in  hills,  valleys,  and  forests  of  the  Province. 

Then  he  became  universally  known  and  respected, 
no  man  possessing  more  influence  in  that  part  of 
North  Carolina.  As  early  as  1770  he  was  one  of 
the  two  representatives  of  Mecklenburg  County  in 
the  popular  house  of  the  Legislature,  and  in  June, 
1772,  he  was  employed  by  Governor  Martin  as 
surveyor  in  running  the  western  extension  of  the 
boundary  line  between  North  and  South  Carolina. 
As  indicative  of  the  independent  spirit  of  the  people 
in  opposing  royal  encroachments  on  their  rights,  the 
popular  house  in  February,  1773,  refused  to  vote  an 
appropriation  of  £172  IDS.  to  pay  the  claim  of  the 
surveyor  for  running  the  line,  even  though  so  popu- 
lar a  man  of  the  people,  and  a  former  member  of  the 
house,  as  Captain  Polk,  contending  that  the  previous 


90  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Assembly  had  expressed  its  sense  of  injury  that 
accrued  to  the  colony  by  fixing  the  line  as  proposed 
by  the  Governor. 

At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution,  Thomas 
Polk  was  the  colonel  of  the  militia,  and  the  most 
popular  man  in  Mecklenburg,  and  all  his  influence 
was  exerted  in  behalf  of  the  popular  cause. 

It  is  apparent  from  Martin's  History  of  North 
Carolina,  and  from  the  statements  of  some  of  the 
delegates  with  reference  to  the  Mecklenburg  Resolves 
of  May  20,  1775,  that  he  had  the  principal  agency  in 
calling  the  convention  of  which  he  was  a  conspicuous 
member  and  popular  leader  of  the  people.  Foote 
says  that  he  was  well  known  and  well  acquainted  in 
the  surrounding  counties,  a  man  of  great  excellence 
and  merited  popularity.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
Mecklenburg  members  of  the  Provincial  Congress 
that  held  sessions  at  Hillsborough  during  August 
and  September,  1775,  and  served  on  important  com- 
mittees— one  to  prepare  a  plan  for  the  regulation 
of  internal  peace,  order  and  safety  of  the  Province. 
On  September  9,  1775,  he  was  appointed  by  the 
Provincial  Congress  colonel  of  the  militia  of  Meck- 
lenburg, and  in  November  and  December  following, 
marched  at  the  head  of  six  companies,  aggregating 
three  hundred  men,  into  the  southeastern  part  of 
South  Carolina  to  aid  in  suppressing  an  outbreak 
of  the  Tories  in  that  quarter.  Some  300  pounds  of 
powder  was  supplied  by  the  authorities  of  North 
Carolina  for  the  use  of  his  troops  against  the  insur- 
gents near  Ninety-Six.  It  was  a  hard  service  with 
some  fighting.  The  Tories  were  subdued  and  many 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  91 

made  prisoners,  and  in  consequence  of  a  heavy  snow 
fall,  it  was  called  the  snow  campaign.  This  service 
was  all  the  more  creditable  since  it  was  to  serve  a 
neighboring  Province  in  suppressing  a  dangerous 
insurrection,  and  Colonel  Richardson,  the  South 
Carolina  commander,  was  directed  to  take  Colonel 
Folk's  men  into  the  pay  of  the  colony  for  the  expe- 
dition, and  tender  them  the  thanks  of  the  South 
Carolina  Council  of  Safety,  with  the  assurance  that 
"the  service  of  those  good  neighbors"  would  ever  be 
held  in  grateful  remembrance. 

In  December,  while  absent  on  this  service,  he  was 
appointed  colonel  of  the  Second  of  the  two  regiments 
of  Minute  Men,  ordered  to  be  raised  in  the  district 
of  Salisbury,  composed  of  Rowan,  Mecklenburg, 
Tryon  and  Surry  counties.  He  had  been  but  a  brief 
period  returned  from  South  Carolina  when  he  was 
called  to  lead  his  regiment  against  the  Tory  High- 
landers on  the  Cape  Fear  in  February,  1776,  and 
reaching  Cross  Creek,  now  Fayetteville,  received 
intelligence  of  the  decisive  victory  of  Caswell  and 
Lillington  over  the  insurgents,  and  returned  home. 

In  April  he  was  recommended  by  the  Provincial 
Congress  to  the  command  of  the  Fourth  of  the  six 
Continental  regiments,  which  the  Continental  Con- 
gress confirmed  early  in  May ;  and  the  same  month 
he  was  ordered  with  his  regiment  to  join  General 
Moore  at  Cape  Fear.  The  six  Continental  regi- 
ments finally  rendezvoused  at  Wilmington,  from 
which  at  least  a  portion  were  ordered  in  June  to  the 
defense  of  Charleston,  Folk's  regiment  being  of  the 
number.  But  a  single  regiment  of  the  North  Caro- 


92  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Hnians,  Clarke's,  appears  to  have  had  any  active  part 
in  repelling  the  enemy  from  Charleston.  This 
service  ended,  the  North  Carolina  Continentals  seem 
to  have  returned  to  their  old  camp  at  Wilmington, 
and  drilled  and  perfected  themselves  during  the 
summer  and  autumn,  when  they  were  marched  into 
South  Carolina. 

In  February,  1777,  Francis  Nash,  who  had  just 
been  promoted  to  a  brigadier,  was  ordered  by  the 
Continental  Congress  to  use  his  influence  in  the 
western  part  of  North  Carolina  to  stimulate  the 
filling  up  of  the  Continental  regiments,  and  march 
the  ensuing  month  to  join  General  Washington. 

Maj.  William  Lee  Davidson,  of  Folk's  regiment, 
marched  with  the  North  Carolina  line,  but  it  is  not 
apparent  that  Colonel  Polk  himself  engaged  in  the 
service.  It  is  probable  that  inasmuch  as  the  Con- 
tinental regiments  were  deficient  in  numbers,  there 
were  only  enough  of  Folk's  to  form  a  major's 
command. 

From  this  time  to  the  fall  of  Charleston,  in  May, 
1780,  was  comparatively  a  quiet  period  in  North 
Carolina. 

In  1777  Liberty  Hall  Academy  was  established 
in  Charlotte  on  grounds  and  improvements  pur- 
chased by  Colonel  Polk,  and  he  was  made  one  of 
the  trustees.  Thus  were  means  for  public  education 
provided  and  sustained,  until  the  institution  was 
suspended  by  the  subsequent  British  invasion  of  the 
country.  In  1780  Colonel  Polk  had  troops  at  Char- 
lotte guarding  the  public  magazines,  which  were 
removed  when  the  enemy  approached  in  September 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  93 

of  the  same  year.  He  acted  as  commissary-general 
of  supplies  both  for  the  North  Carolina  troops  and 
the  Continentals  under  General  Yates  (Lee  Paper, 
N.  Y.  Hist.  Society,  p.  145),  and  there  was  some 
complaint  for  inattention  to  duty  on  his  part  in  his 
important  office,  which  he  explained  upon  the  ground 
of  scarcity  of  supplies  and  necessary  attention  to  his 
family. 

Col.  Alexander  Martin,  a  member  of  the  State 
Board  of  War,  to  which  Colonel  Polk  was  amenable, 
having  visited  the  army  of  Mecklenburg,  declares  in 
a  public  letter  recorded  in  the  journal  of  the  board, 
that  in  his  opinion  Colonel  Polk  had  fulfilled  the 
duties  of  his  office  as  well  as  circumstances  would 
admit. 

During  Cornwallis's  occupancy  of  the  country, 
Colonel  Polk  had  necessarily  to  retire  from  Char- 
lotte, and  his  residence  became  the  headquarters  of 
the  British  general.  An  original  letter  written  by 
him  at  this  period  to  the  North  Carolina  Board  of 
War  is  in  possession  of  Col.  J.  H.  Wheeler,  viz. : 

"CAMP  YADKIN  RIVER,  Oct.  n,  1780. 

"GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform 
you  that  on  Saturday  last  the  noted  Colonel  Fergu- 
son, with  150  men,  fell  on  King's  Mountain;  800 
taken  prisoners,  with  150  stand  of  arms.  Cleveland 
and  Campbell  commanded.  Glorious  affair.  In  a 


94 

few  days  doubt  not  we  shall  be  in  Charlotte,  and  I 
will  take  possession  of  my  house  and  his  lordship 
take  the  woods. 

"I  am,  gentlemen,  with  respect, 

"Your  humble  servant, 

"THOMAS  POLK." 

How  such  a  man  as  Colonel  Polk  should  have 
been  under  a  cloud  of  distrust  even  for  a  short  time, 
as  Lossing  states,  is  a  little  marvelous;  yet  some 
mischief-making  person  must  have  invented  a  "sus- 
picion that  he  had  accepted  of  protection  from  the 
British,"  and  reported  it  to  Gates,  who  returned  from 
his  late  defeat,  and  the  recent  treachery  of  Arnold, 
readily  surmised  "suspicious  circumstances,"  and 
ordered  Colonel  Polk  to  Salisbury  to  answer  for  his 
conduct.  So  utterly  baseless  were  those  cruel  sus- 
picions that  they  were  promptly  dismissed,  and 
Colonel  Polk  was  continued  in  his  double  office  of 
commissary-general  of  provisions  for  the  State  of 
North  Carolina  and  commissary  of  purchases  for 
the  Continental  troops.  The  very  first  night  that 
General  Greene,  having  succeeded  Gates,  passed  at 
headquarters  early  in  December,  he  spent  with 
Colonel  Polk  in  studying  the  resources  of  the  coun- 
try, and  by  "the  following  morning/'  said  Polk  to 
Elkanah  Watson,  "he  better  understood  them  than 
Gates  had  done  during  the  whole  period  of  his 
command."  The  Mecklenburg  region  had  been  the 
granary  of  provisions  for  the  Americans  for  the 
whole  season,  and  for  the  British  for  a  short  season, 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE     95 

j 
the  latter  demanding  heavy  supplies;  according  to 

Stedman,  their  commissary-general  demanding  100 
cattle  per  day. 

The  country  was,  therefore,  so  much  exhausted 
that  Colonel  Polk,  who  still  acted  as  commissary 
from  patriotic  motives,  declared  that  it  could  scarcely 
afford  subsistence  for  a  single  week.  It  was  with 
regret  that  General  Greene  learned  from  him  that 
many  reasons  conspired,  rendering  it  necessary  for 
him  to  relinquish  the  office.  "I  am  now  too  far 
advanced  in  years  to  undergo  the  task  and  fatigue 
of  a  commissary-general,"  wrote  Polk  to  Greene  on 
December  loth.  On  the  same  day  Greene  wrote  to 
Col.  William  R.  Davie,  inviting  him  to  that  position, 
saying,  "Colonel  Polk  finds  the  business  of  subsisting 
the  army  too  laborious  and  difficult  for  him  to  con- 
duct, and,  therefore,  has  sent  in  his  resignation  to 
the  Board  of  War,  but  the  greatest  difficulty  with 
him  is,  he  cannot  leave  home  owing  to  the  peculiar 
state  of  his  family."  Dr.  Johnson  has  presented  in 
his  traditions  of  the  Revolution  the  following  letter : 

"CAMP  CHARLOTTE,  Dec.  15,  1780. 
"To  Colonel  Polk: 

"SiR : — I  find  it  will  be  impossible  to  leave  camp 
as  early  as  I  intended,  as  Colonel  Kascius  has  made 
no  report  respecting  a  position  upon  Pee  Dee.  I 
must,  therefore,  beg  you  to  continue  the  daily  sup- 
plies of  the  army,  and  keep  in  readiness  three  days' 


96  THE  MECKLENBURG 

provisions  beforehand.  I  have  just  received  some 
intelligence  from  Governor  Nash  and  from  Congress 
which  makes  me  wish  to  see  you.  I  am,  etc 

"NATHAN  GREENE." 

There  is  proof  that  General  Greene  had  such 
unlimited  confidence  in  Colonel  Polk  that  he  wished 
to  confide  in  him  intelligence  that  he  did  not  wish  to 
write.  Before  retiring  from  service,  on  General 
Greene's  appeal,  he  exerted  himself  to  procure  lumber 
for  the  barracks  at  the  new  position  selected  for  the 
army  on  Hicks's  Creek  nearly  opposite  Cheraw  Hill, 
on  the  Pee  Dee ;  to  build  boats  for  the  transportation 
of  stores;  to  collect  provisions,  and  do  everything 
that  could  be  done  to  enable  the  new  commander  to 
prepare  his  men  for  the  active  duties  of  the  coming 
campaign. 

General  Greene's  letters  evince  a  high  appreciation 
of  Colonel  Folk's  service,  and  a  still  higher  evidence 
of  his  confidence  in  his  skill  and  patriotism  may  be 
found  in  the  fact  that  upon  the  fall  of  the  gallant 
General  Davidson,  early  in  February,  1781,  Greene 
appointed  Polk  to  fill  the  vacancy  on  the  recommen- 
dation of  the  officers  of  the  brigade  as  the  fittest 
person  for  the  important  position  among  all  the 
many  patriotic  soldiers  of  Mecklenburg. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Guil- 
ford,  it  was  thought  Cornwallis  would  retrace  his 
steps  by  the  way  of  Salisbury  and  Charlotte,  so  as 
to  keep  open  the  communication  and  act  in  concert 
with  Lord  Rowdon  at  Camden;  and  as  the  citizens 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  97 

of  that  section  had  already  experienced  the  distress 
of  the  presence  of  the  British  soldiers,  they  deter- 
mined to  do  their  best  to  keep  the  enemy  at  a  dis- 
tance. General  Polk  accordingly  ordered  out  the 
next  division  of  militia  liable  for  duty,  with  a  view 
of  marching  to  Salisbury  to  fortify  the  fords  and 
passes  on  the  Yadkin,  but  before  reaching  there 
intelligence  was  received  that  the  British  were  direct- 
ing their  course  toward  Fayetteville,  when  Colonel 
Polk  dismissed  his  men  and  returned. 

General  Greene  re-entered  South  Carolina  in 
April,  taking  position  before  Camden.  He  called 
upon  North  Carolina  for  a  draft  of  three  months' 
men,  when  Colonel  Polk  exerted  himself  to  meet  the 
demands  of  the  occasion,  and  led  a  considerable 
force  of  his  countrymen,  and  joined  Greene  at 
Rugeley's  Mills  shortly  after  the  battle  at  Hobkirk's 
Hill,  and  remained  in  that  border  region,  watching 
and  checking  the  British  and  Tories  in  both  Caro- 
linas,  until  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  service  for 
which  his  men  had  been  drafted.  This  appears  to 
have  been  Colonel  Folk's  last  military  service. 
Governor  Graham  well  observes  that  when  placed 
in  command  as  brigadier-general,  "in  all  after,  as 
in  prior  times,  he  was  regarded  as  an  unwavering 
patriot." 

General  Polk  now  retired  to  private  life,  which, 
with  his  advancing  years,  he  yearned  to  enjoy. 
After  Rutherford's  expedition  in  the  autumn  of 
1781,  in  pursuit  of  a  body  of  Tories  under  McNeil 
and  other  Tory  leaders,  peace  was  practically 
restored  in  North  Carolina. 


98  THE  MECKLENBURG 

He  owned  mills  two  miles  south  of  Charlotte,  and 
kept  a  store  in  the  village,  and  was  now  enabled  to 
give  his  undivided  time  to  his  private  affairs. 

Elkanah  Watson,  in  his  "Men  and  Times  of  the 
Revolution,"  who  visited  Charlotte  in  1785,  states: 
"I  carried  letters  to  the  courteous  General  Polk,  and 
remained  two  days  at  his  residence  in  the  delightful 
society  of  his  charming  family." 

After  the  war,  when  the  disbanded  soldiers  of 
the  North  Carolina  line  received  their  land  warrants 
in  payment  for  their  military  services,  General  Polk 
purchased  many  of  these  warrants  and  went,  early 
in  1786,  with  his  four  sons,  armed  with  their  rifles, 
into  the  wilderness  of  Duck  River  County,  in  Middle 
Tennessee,  to  locate  them,  Col.  William  Polk  having 
been  chosen  in  1793  one  of  the  principal  surveyors. 
Resuming  his  original  profession  of  surveyor,  Gen- 
eral Polk  selected  the  finest  lands  in  that  rich  valley, 
ran  the  line,  marked  them,  and  secured  the  titles, 
notwithstanding  the  hostility  of  the  Indians.  So 
when  he  died  in  1793,  ne  ^ft  a  ri°n  inheritance  in 
lands  for  his  children.  "He  was,"  says  Dr.  J.  G. 
Ramsey,  "a  high-souled  cavalier,  full  of  dash  and 
courage;  rich,  hospitable,  and  charming."  Dr.  John- 
son relates  that  several  of  his  children  were  wild  and 
frolicsome — one  bore  the  sobriquet  of  "Devil 
Charley";  that  on  one  occasion  the  General  was 
speaking  of  the  boldness  of  single  highway  robbery, 
and  declared  that  no  single  man  would  dare  make 
such  an  attempt  on  him.  The  sons  all  heard  it,  and 
Charley  resolved  to  have  his  fun,  even  at  his  father's 
expense.  So  when  his  father  was  returning  on  a 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  99 

by-road  with  a  sum  of  money  he  had  been  collecting, 
the  reckless  son,  disguised,  waylaid  him  in  a  creek 
bottom  and  demanded  the  instant  delivery  of  his 
money.  The  General's  first  thought  was  to  snatch 
up  his  pistols,  but  Charles  was  too  quick  for  him, 
and  seeing  a  pistol,  as  he  supposed,  presented  at  his 
breast,  the  father  gave  up  his  money  and  returned 
home  not  a  little  fretted  and  mortified  at  the  result. 
Perceiving  his  depression  of  spirits,  the  young  men 
inquired  into  the  cause  and  offered  their  aid  in  any 
difficulties.  He  frankly  told  them  he  had  been 
robbed  of  such  a  sum  of  money,  designating  the 
place.  They  all  expressed  surprise,  and  inquired  if 
he  were  not  armed.  He  acknowledged  that  he  had 
his  pistols,  but  had  not  had  time  to  use  them.  When 
they  concluded  that  there  must  have  been  several 
highwaymen  banded  together  to  have  effected  their 
purpose,  he,  with  increased  mortification,  confessed 
that  there  was  but  one ;  but  added  that  he  was  off  his 
guard,  and  was  taken  by  surprise.  Charles  at  this 
point  returned  the  money,  acknowledging  that  he 
had  taken  it  from  him.  "What!"  exclaimed  the 
General,  "Did  you  endanger  your  father's  life?" 
"No,  sir,"  said  Charles.  "What,  did  you  not  present 
a  pistol  at  my  breast  ?"  "No,  sir,"  replied  the  son. 
"How  can  you  say  that?"  asked  the  father.  "I 
assure  you,  sir,  it  was  only  my  mother's  brass  candle- 
stick that  I  took  off  from  your  own  mantelpiece." 

Of  Colonel  Folk's  three  daughters,  Margaret 
married  Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard,  whose  name  is  so 
intimately  associated  with  the  Mecklenburg  Conven- 
tion and  famous  Resolves  of  May  20,  1775-  She 


100  THE  MECKLENBURG 

died  early  and  left  an  only  daughter,  Margaret  Polk, 
who  became  the  wife  of  Nathaniel  Alexander,  a 
native  of  Mecklenburg,  who  graduated  at  Princeton 
in  1776,  and  after  studying  medicine,  entered  the 
army,  served  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  1797,  in 
the  State  Senate  in  1801  and  1802,  and,  while  hold- 
ing a  seat  in  Congress  in  1803-05,  he  was  chosen  by 
the  Legislature  Governor  of  the  State,  serving  two 
years.  He  died  at  Charlotte,  November  8,  1808,  at 
the  age  of  52  years,  leaving  no  children.  General 
Folk's  third  daughter  married  a  man  named  Brown, 
leaving  no  issue. 

COL.    ABRAHAM    ALEXANDER 

The  Alexanders  were  very  numerous  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  and  since  in  Mecklenburg,  and 
although  of  the  same  original  Scotch-Irish  stock, 
they  were  of  different  degrees  of  consanguinity. 
Hezekiah  and  John  McKnitt  Alexander  were  broth- 
ers; while  Abraham,  Adam,  Charles  and  Ezra 
Alexander  were  their  cousins.  ( See  Mans.  Letters 
of  Dr.  J.  G.  M.  Ramsay,  October  2,  1875.) 

Foote  relates  that,  among  Presbyterian  emigra- 
tions from  Scotland  to  Ireland,  to  escape  persecution 
for  conscience's  sake,  during  the  period  between 
1610  and  1688,  there  were  seven  brothers  bearing 
the  same  name  of  Alexander. 

But  their  grievances  increasing  a  few  years  pre- 
ceding the  Revolution  of  1688,  their  ministers 
imprisoned  for  holding  fasts,  the  Alexanders  re- 
solved to  seek  quiet  and  repose  in  the  New  World. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  101 

On  the  eve  of  their  departure,  they  sent  to  Scotland 
for  their  old  preacher  to  baptize  their  children  and 
administer  to  them  the  consolations  of  the  Gospel. 
The  faithful  and  fearless  preacher  arrived  in  time  to 
meet  the  friends  on  the  vessel  on  which  they  had 
embarked,  and  there  held  becoming  religious  serv- 
ices. An  armed  company  now  came  on  board,  broke 
up  the  meeting,  and  lodged  the  minister  in  jail. 
Toward  night  an  old  matron  addressed  her  kinsman : 
"Men,  gang  ye  away,  tak'  our  minister  out  o'  the 
jail,  and  tak'  him,  guide  soule,  wi'  us  till  Ameriky." 
Her  commands  had  never  been  disobeyed.  Before 
morning  the  minister  was  on  board  and  the  vessel 
had  proceeded  on  its  voyage.  The  minister  having 
no  family,  cheerfully  consented  to  the  arrangement, 
and  with  joy  and  thanksgiving  they  landed  safely  on 
Manhattan.  Part  of  the  company  remained  there, 
from  whom  it  is  related  Wm.  Alexander,  commonly 
known  as  Lord  Sterling,  a  major-general  of  the  Rev- 
olution, descended.  The  others  took  up  their  abode 
for  a  time  in  New  Jersey ;  then  settled  in  part,  per- 
haps, in  Cecil  County,  Maryland,  and  others  in 
Pennsylvania.  There  they  mingled  with  their 
countrymen,  intermarried,  and  their  descendants  in 
great  numbers  migrated  to  the  Catawba  country,  fol- 
lowing the  great  valley  of  Virginia  from  Pennsylva- 
nia and  Maryland.  This  movement  began  slowly 
about  1745,  and  more  rapidly  from  1750  onward. 
Maj.  Thomas  Alexander  and  Dan  Alexander,  both 
soldiers  of  the  Revolution,  were  natives  of  Mecklen- 
burg, the  former  having  been  born  in  1753,  the  lat- 


102  THE  MECKLENBURG 

ter  in  1758.  Abraham  Alexander  was  among  those 
early  emigrants.  He  was  born,  apparently,  in  Cecil 
County,  Maryland,  in  1717,  and  migrated  early  to 
the  Catawba  country;  soon  attained  a  prominent 
position  among  the  pioneer  settlers.  He  was  long  a 
leading  magistrate  of  his  county,  and  the  honored 
chairman  of  the  Inferior  Court  both  before  and  dur- 
ing the  Revolution.  With  Col.  Thomas  Polk,  he 
represented  Mecklenburg  in  the  Assembly  in  1771, 
and  ranked  among  the  leading  Whigs  of  that  day. 
He  seemed,  however,  not  to  have  been  ambitious  for 
honor  and  place,  for  he  declined  at  the  next  election 
to  solicit  the  suffrage  of  the  people.  He  is  next 
found  presiding  at  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of 
May  20,  1775,  and  was  active  during  the  whole 
period  of  the  Revolution,  both  as  member  of  the 
Justice  Court  and  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety.  He  was,  in  1777,  appointed  as  one  of  the 
original  trustees  of  Liberty  Hall  Academy,  and  was 
for  many  years  an  elder  in  Sugar  Creek  Presbyterian 
Church.  He  died  April  28,  1778,  in  the  6gth  year 
of  his  age,  and  his  widow,  Dorcas,  survived  till  May 
28th,  when  she  passed  away  in  her  67th  year,  and 
her  remains  rest  beside  those  of  her  husband  in  the 
old  Sugar  Creek  burial  ground.  They  had  five  sons 
and  one  daughter — Abraham,  Isaac,  Nathaniel, 
Elias,  and  Joab.  Isaac  became  a  distinguished 
physician,  and  settled  in  Camden,  S.  C.,  while  his 
brothers  spent  their  days  as  tillers  of  the  soil. 
Elizabeth,  the  sister,  became  the  wife  of  William 
Alexander,  son  of  Hezekiah  Alexander. 


103 
DR.    EPHRAIM    BREVARD 

The  earliest  known  Brevard  was  a  French 
Huguenot,  leaving  his  native  land  on  the  revocation 
of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  settling  among  the 
Scotch-Irish  in  the  northern  part  of  Ireland,  where 
he  formed  an  acquaintance  with  a  family  of 
McKnitts,  in  company  with  whom  he  sailed  for 
America.  Among  the  McKnitt  emigrants  was  a 
blooming  lassie,  who  may  have  had  quite  as  much 
to  do  in  attracting  his  attention  as  the  cheap  lands 
and  glowing  accounts  of  the  New  World.  A  mutual 
attachment  sprang  up,  which  eventuated  in  marriage. 
They  settled  on  the  waters  of  Elk  River,  Cecil 
County,  in  the  northeastern  corner  of  Maryland, 
bordering  on  Pennsylvania.  Five  sons  and  one 
daughter  were  the  issue  of  this  union,  of  whom  John, 
Robert,  Zebulon,  and  their  married  sister  and  hus- 
band migrated  to  the  Yadkin  and  Catawba  country 
about  1747,  and  settled  in  what  was  subsequently 
Rowan,  and  since  Iredell  County. 

Some  years  prior  to  this  removal,  John  Brevard, 
the  elder  of  the  brothers,  had  married  Jane 
McWhirter,  a  sister  of  Dr.  Alex  McWhirter,  of 
Scotch-Irish  extraction,  of  the  adjoining  county  of 
New  Castle,  Delaware;  and  their  fifth  child  and 
eldest  son,  Ephraim,  was  born  in  1744  in  Cecil 
County,  Maryland,  and  was  only  about  three  years 
old  when  his  parents  removed  to  the  wilds  of  North 
Carolina,  settling  in  what  subsequently  became 
Iredell  County.  While  a  boy  he  had  the  misfortune 
to  lose  one  of  his  eyes,  and  after  attending  a  classical 


104  THE  MECKLENBURG 

school  near  his  father's  residence,  he  was  sent,  on 
the  conclusion  of  the  Indian  war  in  1761,  with  his 
cousin,  Adlai  Osborne,  to  attend  a  grammar  school 
in  Prince  Edward  County,  Virginia,  under  William 
Capples.  The  young  men,  with  Thomas  Reese, 
entered  Princeton  College  in  1766,  graduating  in 
1768.  Reese  and  Brevard  taught  school  some  time 
in  Maryland,  which  enabled  Brevard  to  put  himself 
under  the  tuition  of  Dr.  David  Ramsay,  subsequently 
so  celebrated  in  civil  life  during  the  Revolution  and 
as  an  historian  after  the  war.  After  pursuing  his 
medical  studies  some  time  in  Philadelphia,  Dr. 
Ramsay  removed  to  Somerset  County,  Maryland. 
Brevard  accompanied  him,  and  after  a  due  course 
there,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession 
in  Charlotte.  Possessed  of  more  than  common 
abilities,  well  cultured  under  the  instructions  of  Dr. 
Witherspoon,  Dr.  Ramsay  and  others,  and  of  pre- 
possessing manners,  he  at  once  took  a  prominent 
position  and  exerted  a  large  influence  among  the 
Mecklenburg  people.  He  was  soon  united  in  mar- 
riage with  a  daughter  of  Col.  Thomas  Polk,  who 
died  leaving  him  an  only  daughter.  The  distin- 
guished part  he  acted  in  the  Mecklenburg  Convention 
of  May  20,  1775,  as  a  member,  and  the  reputed 
author  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence Resolves  of  May  20,  1775,  will  cause  his  name 
to  ever  fill  an  honored  place  in  the  record  of  western 
Carolina.  Bancroft  declares  that  his  name  "should 
be  remembered  with  honor  by  his  countrymen"  for 
having  "digested  the  system  which  was  then  adopted 
and  formed  in  effect  a  Declaration  of  Independence, 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          105 

as  well  as  a  complete  system  of  government,"  and 
Gridsby  pronounces  him  an  exalted  patriot,  and  as 
to  the  record  of  the  Resolves,  that  the  beauty  of 
their  diction,  their  elegant  precision,  the  wide  scope 
of  statesmanship  which  they  exhibit,  prove  incon- 
testibly  that  the  man  who  put  them  forth  was  worthy 
of  their  high  trust  at  the  difficult  crisis. 

In  February,  1776,  we  find  him  the  tutor  of  the 
Queen's  Museum  Academy,  with  nineteen  young 
men  under  him,  whom  he  led  as  their  captain  in 
Colonel  Folk's  regiment  in  an  expedition  against 
Scotch  Tories  on  the  Cape  Fear.  How  long  he 
continued  teaching  is  not  known. 

In  1777,  when  Liberty  Hall  Academy  was  organ- 
ized, he  was  one  of  the  original  trustees,  and  his 
name  as  such  is  appended  to  a  degree  given  to  John 
Graham  in  1778. 

After  performing  every  duty  to  his  people  befitting 
a  patriot,  he  entered  the  Southern  army  as  a  surgeon, 
and  was  captured  at  the  surrender  of  Charleston  in 
May,  1780.  There,  from  long  confinement  and 
unwholesome  diet,  he  was  taken  sick,  and  when  at 
length  set  at  liberty,  he  reached  the  home  of  his 
friend,  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  where  he  lingered 
for  several  months,  his  disease  baffling  the  best 
medical  skill — Dr.  William  Read,  Physician  General 
to  the  Southern  army,  visiting  him  from  the  hospital 
at  Charlotte.  He  finally  breathed  his  last  some  time 
in  1781,  about  the  age  of  37  years,  and  was  probably 
buried  in  Hopewell  Cemetery  near  John  McKnitt 
Alexander's  home,  although  tradition  says  he  is 
interred  in  Charlotte  on  the  square  now  occupied  by 


106  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  county  court-house,  and  bounded  by  Third, 
Fourth,  Tryon,  and  College  streets.  Before  and 
during  the  Revolutionary  War  Queen's  Museum, 
afterwards  called  Liberty  Hall,  established  in  1771, 
by  the  Mecklenburg  Presbyterians  in  opposition  to 
British  authority,  stood  on  this  ground.  And  when 
Cornwallis  occupied  Charlotte  with  his  army  in 
September  and  October,  1780,  the  buildings  were 
used  for  a  hospital,  and  the  soldiers  that  died  there 
were  buried  near  the  house.  Consequently,  it  is  not 
reasonable  to  suppose  under  those  circumstances, 
that  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  with  his  church, 
Hopewell,  near  at  hand,  would  bring  the  remains  of 
Brevard  nine  miles  to  Charlotte,  where  there  was  no 
church  in  that  day,  and  bury  them  among  British 
soldiers  whose  government  was  still  waging  war  on 
the  American  colonies. 

In  the  language  of  Dr.  Foote,  "He  thought  clearly, 
felt  deeply,  wrote  well,  resisted  bravely,  and  died  a 
martyr  to  that  liberty  none  loved  better  and  few 
understood  so  well."  He  was  a  man  of  undoubted 
genius  and  talent.  (See  MS.  Letters  of  Rev.  R.  H. 
King  to  Dr.  J.  G.  M.  Ramsay,  April  9,  1823.)  His 
only  daughter,  on  arriving  at  years  of  womanhood, 
married  a  Dickerson,  settled  at  Camden,  S.  C,  and 
left  one  child,  a  son,  James  Polk  Dickerson,  who 
was  lieutenant-colonel  of  Butler's  regiment  of  South 
Carolina  Volunteers  in  the  Mexican  war;  was 
severely  wounded  at  the  siege  of  Vera  Cruz  March 
n,  1847;  recovering  from  that,  he  was  again  badly 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          107 

wounded  at  Cherubusco  on  the  2Oth  of  August 
following,  and  died  of  his  wound  three  weeks  later, 
greatly  regretted  by  his  regiment  and  the  whole 
army. 

COL.    ADAM    ALEXANDER 

The  place  of  Col.  A.  Alexander's  birth  is  not 
certainly  known,  but  he  was  possibly  a  native  of 
Cecil  County,  Maryland,  and  was  born  in  1728.  He 
was  among  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Mecklenburg.  He 
married  a  Miss  Shelby.  As  early  as  June,  1770,  we 
find  him  a  prominent  member  of  Clear  Creek  con- 
gregation, and  the  next  year  he  commanded  a  com- 
pany under  General  Waddell  to  aid  in  putting  down 
the  Regulators,  who  had  taken  the  law  in  their  own 
hands  in  upholding  the  usurpations  and  extortions 
of  Governor  Tryon's  favorites.  That  Captain 
Alexander  was  unwilling  to  shed  the  blood  of  his 
oppressed  countrymen  is  readily  seen  by  the  course 
he  and  other  officers  pursued  in  persuading  Waddell 
to  return  from  their  camp  on  Pott's  Creek  across 
the  Yadkin,  both  on  account  of  the  superiority  of 
the  insurgents,  and  the  unwillingness  of  the  men  to 
engage  them,  while  waiting  for  a  convoy  of  ammu- 
nition under  a  small  guard  from  Charlotte.  A  party 
of  ten  or  twelve,  under  Capt.  William  Alexander, 
blackened  and  disguised,  seized  the  convoy  and 
destroyed  the  powder,  and  ever  after  he  was  known 
as  "Black  Billy"  Alexander. 

Capt.  Adam  Alexander,  on  the  day  of  the  nth  of 
May,  immediately  after  uniting  with  his  brother 
officers  in  advising  a  retreat  beyond  the  Yadkin,  went 


108  THE  MECKLENBURG 

in  person  and  reconnoitered  the  Regulators,  and 
returning,  reported  that  he  had  passed  along  their 
lines  and  the  footmen  appeared  to  him  to  extend 
a  quarter  of  a  mile,  seven  or  eight  deep,  and  that  the 
horsemen,  120  yards,  twelve  or  fourteen  deep.  On 
the  ipth  Waddell,  with  his  small  force  of  250  men, 
was  obliged  to  retreat  from  his  position,  two  miles 
eastward  of  the  Yadkin,  to  Salisbury,  the  Regulators 
having  surrounded  his  party  and  threatened  to  cut 
them  to  pieces  if  they  offered  to  join  the  main  army 
under  Tryon.  But  the  principal  body  of  the  insur- 
gents had  been  defeated  on  the  i6th  at  Alamance, 
and  Tryon  marched  with  his  victorious  troops  to  join 
Waddell,  then  entrenched  near  Salisbury,  eight  miles 
to  the  eastward  of  the  Yadkin.  Receiving  intelli- 
gence that  the  Regulators  in  the  region  embracing 
the  present  counties  of  Mecklenburg,  Lincoln,  and 
Iredell  were  meditating  further  hostilities,  General 
Waddell  was  sent  into  that  quarter  with  a  strong 
detachment,  including  the  Mecklenburg  troops. 
Early  in  June,  with  orders,  after  he  had  performed 
the  service  assigned  him,  to  disband  his  troops,  meet- 
ing with  no  opposition,  he  had  little  to  do  besides 
administering  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  people. 
Adam  Alexander  was  many  years  a  prominent 
magistrate  and  member  of  the  County  Court,  and 
on  May  20,  1775,  was  one  of  the  members  of  the 
Mecklenburg  Convention.  In  September  following, 
he  was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg "Minute  Men"  under  Colonel  Polk,  and  served 
shortly  after  in  one  of  the  Snow  Campaigns  against 
the  Tories  in  South  Carolina. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  109 

When  the  "Minute  Men"  of  the  Salisbury  district 
were,  in  December,  1775,  formed  into  two  groups, 
he  was  re-appointed  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Second 
Regiment  under  Colonel  Polk,  and  marched,  in 
February,  1776,  to  aid  in  quelling  the  insurrection 
of  the  Highlanders  on  the  Cape  Fear. 

In  the  ensuing  April,  when  Polk  was  chosen  to 
command  one  of  the  Continental  regiments,  Adam 
Alexander  succeeded  him  as  colonel  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg regiments.  When  the  Cherokees  commenced 
hostilities  early  in  the  summer  of  1776,  incited 
thereto  by  the  machinations  of  the  enemy,  Colonel 
Alexander  led  a  force  to  the  head  of  the  Catawba, 
where  he  served  six  weeks  in  protecting  the  Catawba 
Valley  during  the  harvest,  and  went  with  his  regi- 
ment under  General  Rutherford,  later  in  the  season, 
on  his  expedition  against  the  treacherous  Cherokees, 
destroying  their  crops  and  villages. 

Dr.  Caldwell  refers  to  Colonel  Alexander  when 
President  Washington  made  his  Southern  tour  in 
1792,  as  "far  advanced  in  life."  His  death  occurred 
in  1798,  at  the  age  of  70  years,  lamented  by  all  who 
knew  him.  His  remains  were  interred  at  Rock 
Springs.  Adam  Alexander  was  a  man  of  military 
genius,  remarkably  endowed.  He  was  a  Presbyterian. 

He  had  four  sons — Evan,  Isaac,  Adam,  and 
Charles,  and  one  daughter,  Mary.  She  married 
John  Springs.  All  the  Springs  of  Mecklenburg, 
a  large,  wealthy  and  intelligent  connection,  are 
descendants  of  Colonel  Alexander. 

His  son,  Evan  Alexander,  whom  he  sent  to  Prince- 
ton with  the  hope  that  he  would  enter  the  ministry, 


110  THE  MECKLENBURG 

graduated  in  1787,  became  a  prominent  lawyer  in 
Charlotte;  was  two  years  a  member  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, then  representative  in  Congress  from  1805  to 
1809,  and  died  unmarried  October  28th,  in  the  latter 
year. 

Isaac  Alexander  held  various  offices  of  trust  in 
the  county,  while  his  brother  Charles  occupied  the 
old  homestead,  married  a  Miss  Means,  and  had 
several  talented  sons,  who  died  young. 

GEN.    ROBERT   IRWIN 

William  Irwin  was  one  of  the  early  Scotch-Irish 
settlers  in  West  Pennsborough,  Cumberland  County, 
Pennsylvania,  a  few  miles  southeast  of  Carlisle. 
His  son,  Robert,  the  eighth  of  thirteen  children,  was 
born  August  26,  1740,  and  was  reared  with  few 
advantages  on  his  native  homestead.  When  his 
father  died,  not  long  prior  to  May,  1763,  the  farm 
of  one  hundred  acres  was  purchased  of  the  heirs  at 
£15  each,  by  their  elder  brother,  John  Irwin,  and 
with  this  Robert  Irwin  commenced  life  and  wended 
his  way  to  the  Steele  Creek  settlement  in  Mecklen- 
burg. He  was  soon  after  united  in  marriage  with 
Mary  Alexander,  daughter  of  Zebulon  Alexander, 
an  early  emigrant  from  Pennsylvania.  About  the 
period  of  1767,  Robert  Irwin  was  one  of  the  first 
bench  of  elders  of  Steele  Creek  Church.  He  was 
one  of  the  members  of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention 
in  May,  1775,  and  thenceforward  proved  himself 
one  of  the  active  leaders  of  the  Mecklenburg  people 
during  the  war.  It  is  altogether  probable  he  had 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  111 

seen  service  during  the  French  and  Indian  War  on 
the  frontier  of  Pennsylvania,  for  Colonel  Armstrong 
led  many  a  daring  force  against  the  Indians  during 
that  period  from  the  Carlisle  region;  and  more 
probably  still  he  was  employed  against  the  Regula- 
tors in  1771,  and  on  the  Snow  Campaign  near  the 
close  of  1775.  After  having  served  as  a  member 
of  the  North  Carolina  Provincial  Congress  in  April 
and  May,  1776,  he  engaged  in  General  Rutherford's 
campaign  against  the  Cherokees  during  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  that  year.  Returning  from  this 
expedition  in  October,  he  was  rechosen  to  a  seat  in 
the  Provincial  Congress,  which  met  in  November 
in  the  double  capacity  of  making  laws  and  forming 
a  new  Constitution.  On  the  death  of  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Phifer,  he  succeeded  him  in  1777  as  second 
in  command  of  the  Mecklenburg  militia. 

General  Irwin  died  at  his  residence  in  the  Steele 
Creek  settlement,  in  Mecklenburg  County,  December 
23,  1800,  in  his  6ist  year,  and  was  interred  in  the 
Steele  Creek  burial  ground,  his  wife's  remains 
occupying  the  same  grave.  On  his  tombstone  is 
engraved  this  beautiful  and  truthful  delineation  of 
his  character,  "£reat,  noble,  generous,  good  and 
brave." 

JOHN  M'KNITT  ALEXANDER 

i 
Little  more  can  be  said  of  Mr.  Alexander  than  has 

already  been  indicated.  Borri  in  1733,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, as  stated  by  Dr.  Foote,  but  according  to  more 
reliable  information,  in  the  northeastern  portion  of 
Cecil  County,  Maryland,  where  his  father,  James 


112  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Alexander,  settled  on  a  tract  of  land  called  New 
Munster,  in  1714,  where  soon  after  he  married 
Margaret  McKnitt,  a  sister  of  John  McKnitt,  an 
early  emigrant  to  the  southern  part  of  the  same 
county.  The  father,  James  Alexander,  remained  in 
Maryland,  surviving  till  1779;  but  his  son,  John 
McKnitt  Alexander,  who  had  served  an  apprentice- 
ship to  a  tailor,  migrated  in  1754,  when  21  years  old, 
to  Mecklenburg  County,  accompanied  by  his  brother, 
Hezekiah,  and  sister,  Jemima,  and  her  husband, 
Maj.  Thomas  Sharpe,  also  of  Cecil  County.  In  the 
early  days  of  Mecklenburg,  when  the  deer  and 
buffalo  furnished  not  only  viands  for  the  table,  but 
a  portion  of  apparel  for  the  people,  a  leather-breeches 
maker  was  not  probably  a  sufficiently  profitable 
occupation  for  the  enterprising  young  Marylander; 
so  we  soon  find  him  a  land  surveyor  and  a  large 
land-holder,  surveying  and  taking  lands  as  far  away 
as  Chester  District,  in  South  Carolina,  forty  miles 
distant  In  1759  he  married  Jane  Bane,  from  Penn- 
sylvania, of  the  same  Scotch-Irish  stock  with  him- 
self, and  settled  in  the  Hopewell  congregation. 
Enterprising,  shrewd,  and  honorable,  he  prospered 
in  business  and  became  wealthy.  Colonel  Wheeler, 
in  his  "Sketches  of  Mecklenburg  Delegates,"  states 
that  Mr.  Alexander  was  a  member  of  the  Provincial 
Assembly  in  1772,  while  Jones's  defense  indicates 
that  Martin  Phifer  and  John  Davidson  were  the 
Mecklenburg  representatives  at  that  time.  But  his 
was  a  busy  and  useful  life  in  the  civil  time,  during 
the  Revolutionary  War,  long  and  faithfully  serving 
as  a  magistrate  and  member  of  the  County  Court ; 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  113 

one  of  the  members  of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention 
of  May  20,  1775;  the  successor  of  Dr.  Brevard  as 
secretary  of  the  Mecklenburg  Committee  of  Safety, 
and  a  representative  in  the  Provincial  Congress  in 
August  and  September,  1775.  The  same  year  he 
visited  Philadelphia,  where  he  communicated  to  Dr. 
Franklin  the  facts  and  circumstances  of  the  pre- 
ceding Mecklenburg  Convention,  when  they  were 
fresh  in  his  memory,  who  expressed  his  approbation 
of  their  act.  In  April,  1776,  we  again  find  him  a 
member  of  the  Provincial  Congress;  in  the  State 
Senate  in  1777,  and  the  same  year  chosen  a  trustee 
of  Liberty  Hall  Academy. 

How  Mr.  Alexander  regarded  the  Red  Coats 
when  they  invaded  the  soil  of  Mecklenburg  in  the 
fall  of  1780,  may  best  be  seen  in  the  notice  of 
Duncan  Ochiltree.  It  was  a  high  compliment  to  his 
sterling  patriotism  that  General  Davidson,  at  that 
period,  named  his  encampment  in  Mecklenburg 
"Camp  McKnitt  Alexander." 

When  Cornwallis  undertook  the  vain  effort  of 
endeavoring  to  recover  the  Cowpens  prisoners  from 
Morgan,  early  in  1781,  and  General  Greene  exerted 
himself  to  thwart  his  Lordship's  purpose,  Mr.  Alex- 
ander, though  his  age  would  have  excused  him  from 
exposure,  accompanied  Greene  as  a  pilot,  if  not  a 
volunteer  aid,  and  was  actively  employed  in  destroy- 
ing, or  sinking,  ferry  boats  on  the  Yadkin  and  Dan 
rivers;  and  by  his  zeal  in  the  cause,  his  intimate 
knowledge  as  an  old  surveyor  of  the  topography  of 


114  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  roads,  and  people  of  the  county,  he  was  able  to 
afford  valuable  assistance  as  counsellor  to  the  Ameri- 
can general. 

For  many  years  he  was  a  sturdy  Presbyterian,  an 
elder  in  the  church,  and  a  prominent  actor  in  all  its 
public  convocations.  During  the  closing  five  or  six 
years  of  his  life  he  was  nearly  blind  and  very  infirm ; 
but  his  children,  grand-children,  and  numerous 
friends  loved  and  revered  him,  and  united  in  lament- 
ing his  separation  from  them  July  10,  1817,  in  the 
85th  year  of  his  age.  In  the  graveyard  at  Hope  well 
his  remains  sleep  in  peace  beside  those  of  his  beloved 
companion.  He  left  two  sons,  William  Bane  and 
Dr.  Joseph  McKnitt  Alexander;  and  of  his  five 
daughters,  one,  Abigail  Bane,  was  united  in  marriage 
to  Rev.  S.  C.  Caldwell;  another  to  Rev.  James 
Wallis,  and  a  third  to  Col.  Francis  A.  Ramsay, 
father  of  the  worthy  historian  of  Tennessee.  As 
he  appeared  to  D.  G.  Stinson  in  1813,  Mr.  Alexander 
was  a  man  of  medium  size,  dark  skin,  with  a  good 
intellectual  face,  neat  and  tidy  in  his  dress;  he  was 
very  dignified,  and  had  the  reputation  of  being  a 
very  sensible  person.  He  was  quite  a  politician  in 
his  day,  of  the  old  Federal  school — while  his  son- 
in-law,  Rev.  James  Wallis,  was  a  prominent  Demo- 
cratic leader,  and  was  often  engaged  to  deliver 
political  addresses  on  the  Fourth  of  July  occasions. 

REV.    HEZEKIAH    BALCH 

The  Balch  family  was  originallv  from  Wales,  and 
the  name  signifies  "proud"  in  the  Welsh  language. 
John  Balch  is  said  to  have  emigrated  to  New 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          115 

England  at  an  early  period  from  Bridgewater,  in 
Somerset,  England,  and  became  possessed  of  a  large 
property  and  extensive  influence.  A  great  grandson 
of  his,  Col.  James  Balch,  migrated  directly  from  his 
native  England,  married  Anne  Goodwine,  and  settled 
on  Deer  Creek,  in  Harford  County,  Maryland,  where 
his  eldest  son,  Hezekiah,  was  born  in  1746.  His 
father  was  a  man  of  highly  gifted  and  cultivated 
mind,  possessing  a  fine  poetical  talent,  and  was  the 
author  of  some  anonymous  pieces  that  had  no  small 
celebrity  in  their  day.  While  his  son  was  yet  a 
youth,  the  father  moved  with  his  family  from  Mary- 
land and  settled  in  Mecklenburg. 

After  assisting  his  father  on  the  farm,  young 
Balch  was  at  length  sent  to  Princeton  College,  where 
he  graduated  in  1766  in  the  same  class  with  Waight- 
still  Avery,  Chief  Justice  Ellsworth,  and  the  cele- 
brated Luther  Martin.  He  was  licensed  to  preach 
by  the  Presbytery  of  Donnegal  in  1767,  and  in  1769 
he  was  ordained  and  sent  as  a  missionary  to  Rocky 
River  and  Poplar  Tent  churches,  within  the  limits  of 
Mecklenburg.  He  had  married  (a  Miss  Sconnel,  it 
is  believed)  shortly  before  removing  to  the  county, 
and  settled  six  miles  west  of  the  present  town  of 
Concord,  on  the  Beattie's  Ford  road.  It  must  be 
conceded  that  during  his  brief  period  of  labor,  about 
seven  years,  he  performed  a  good  pioneer  work  for 
the  Church  and  State — for  the  cause  of  liberty  and 
the  cause  of  education.  A  member  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Convention  of  May,  1775,  he  not  only  voted 
for  the  noble  Resolves,  but  enforced  them  by  his 
vigorous  sense  and  eloquence.  He  did  what  he 


116  THE  MECKLENBURG 

could  for  his  country  and  his  kind ;  but  in  the  summer 
of  1776  he  was  called  to  his  reward  at  the  early  age 
of  30  years.  He  was  reputed  an  elegant  and  accom- 
plished scholar.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a  tall, 
handsome  man,  with  fair  hair,  which  he  wore  long 
and  curling.  He  had  two  or  more  children.  His 
widow  subsequently  married  a  man  by  the  name  of 
McWhorter,  a  professional  teacher,  and  moved  with 
him  and  her  children  to  Tennessee,  Mrs.  McWhorter 
taking  the  children  as  she  passed  along  on  her 
journey  to  view  their  father's  grave  for  the  last  time. 
All  trace  of  these  children  has  been  lost.  Mr.  Balch 
had  three  brothers  and  several  sisters.  Two  of  the 
former  were  noted  Presbyterian  clergymen.  Rev.  Dr. 
Steven  B.  Balch,  of  Georgetown,  and  Rev.  James 
Balch,  of  Kentucky;  the  third,  William  Balch,  a 
planter  in  Georgia.  In  1847  means  were  provided 
and  a  suitable  monument  erected  over  his  grave,  for 
which  Rev.  J.  A.  Wallace  prepared  an  appropriate 
inscription. 

HEZEKIAH    ALEXANDER 

This  member  of  the  numerous  Alexander  family 
was  a  brother  of  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  and  was 
born  in  Cecil  County,  in  the  northern  part  of  Mary- 
land, in  January,  1722.  He  migrated  with  his 
family  to  the  Mecklenburg  country  in  1754,  and  was 
soon  assigned  a  prominent  place  among  the  early 
settlers.  He  located  four  or  five  miles  east  of  Char- 
lotte and  in  1764  erected  a  stone  residence  on  which 
the  date  is  cut,  and  is  a  good  house  to  this  day. 
He  was  for  many  years  a  magistrate  and  member  of 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  117 

the  County  Court.  Foote  relates  of  him  that  he 
was  "the  clearest-headed  magistrate  in  the  county," 
a  high  compliment.  In  May,  1775,  ne  served  in  the 
Mecklenburg  Convention,  and  in  the  ensuing  Sep- 
tember he  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  Salisbury 
District  Committee  of  Safety.  In  April,  1776,  he 
was  appointed  paymaster  of  Col.  Thomas  Folk's 
regiment  of  the  Continentals,  and  the  next  month  he 
was  chosen  one  of  the  two  members  to  represent  the 
Salisbury  District  in  the  State  Council  of  Safety,  on 
pay  of  twenty  shillings  proclamation  money  for  each 
day's  traveling  and  attendance.  He  died  June  16, 
1801. 

CAPT.    ZACCHEUS   WILSON 

The  Wilsons  were  of  Scotch-Irish  Presbyterian 
stock,  and  were  among  the  early  settlers  of  Cumber- 
land County,  Pennsylvania,  where  Zaccheus  Wilson 
was  born,  probably  as  early  as  about  1735  or  1740. 
When  he  grew  to  man's  estate,  he  was  not  "little  of 
statue"  as  Zaccheus  of  old — for  like  nearly  all  of 
that  numerous  connection,  his  person  was  of  full 
medium  size,  rather  heavily  framed,  and  possessing 
great  power  in  the  vigor  of  life.  He  received  but 
a  limited  education,  and  while  yet  quite  young 
settled  with  his  parents  in  the  Poplar  Tent  region, 
originally  a  part  of  Mecklenburg,  now  Cabarrus 
County.  This  was  prior  to  March,  1753.  He  had 
a  younger  sister  who  married  Capt.  Stephen  Alex- 
ander, who  survived  till  the  age  of  90 — the  chronicler 
of  her  region. 


118  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Zaccheus  Wilson  had  three  brothers,  two  of  whom 
were  Robert  and  David,  and  three  sisters.  Reared 
on  the  frontier,  Zaccheus  and  his  brothers  were  not 
the  men  to  have  shirked  any  duty  in  aiding  in  the 
defence  of  the  country.  On  the  Yadkin  River,  in 
Rowan  County,  one  Nicholas  Ross  early  settled, 
marrying  Lizzie  Conger,  daughter  of  John  Conger. 
There  were  then  many  wild  horses  running  in  the 
woods.  Having  a  fine  animal  of  his  own,  and 
needing  another,  Ross  went  in  the  spring  of  the  year 
to  the  range  and  selected  one  that  he  thought  would 
suit  his  purpose,  and  started  to  run  him  down  and 
halter  him.  But  in  the  race,  the  horse  plunged  in 
a  hole,  turned  a  complete  somersault,  and  fell  back  on 
and  crushed  his  pursuer,  who  left  a  widow  and  two 
little  daughters.  (MS.  Letter  of  Rev.  Nicholson 
Ross  Morgan,  a  son  of  the  younger  of  Mr.  Ross's 
daughters.  The  elder  married  Matthew  Harris,  a 
nephew  of  Col.  Robert  and  Samuel  Harris,  of  Rocky 
River. ) 

Zaccheus  Wilson,  in  his  occupation  of  a  surveyor, 
was  sent  for  to  survey  and  divide  the  land  for  the 
heirs ;  saw,  admired,  and  married  the  young  widow, 
and  took  her  to  his  home  in  the  Steele  Creek  region. 

About  1767,  we  find  him  one  of  the  elders  of  Steele 
Creek  Church.  He  had  a  decided  love  for  mathe- 
matical studies,  which  he  pursued  with  little  or  no 
instruction,  and  became  one  of  the  best  surveyors  of 
his  day. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention 
in  May,  1775,  and  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
November,  1776,  for  making  laws  and  forming  a 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPEINDENCE  119 

Constitution.  The  only  military  service  particularly 
remembered,  though  much  in  the  army,  was  as  a 
Captain  at  King's  Mountain,  where  among  plunder 
taken  was  an  English  surveyor's  compass  and 
platting  instruments,  which  were  assigned  to  him  in 
the  division,  and  are  yet  preserved  by  one  of  his 
descendants.  He  was  a  member  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina Convention  of  1788  for  the  consideration  of  the 
Federal  Constitution,  and  he  was  among  the  large 
majority  that  refused  to  give  it  their  approval,  as 
wanting  in  a  proper  protection  of  the  rights  of  the 
people. 

When  the  county  of  Cabarrus  was  set  off  from 
Mecklenburg,  in  1792,  Captain  Wilson  was  a  resi- 
dent of  that  region,  and  was  chosen  county  surveyor. 

In  1796,  Captain  Wilson,  having  lost  his  wife, 
resolved  on  following  his  brother,  Maj.  David  Wil- 
son, who  had  nine  years  before  moved  to  Sumner 
County,  Tennessee;  and  just  prior  to  his  departure 
he  visited  his  step-daughter,  the  mother  of  the  ven- 
erable Rev.  N.  H.  Morgan.  "The  last  night  he 
spent  with  us,"  says  Mr.  Morgan,  "I  slept  with  him, 
and  about  midnight  the  wolves  raised  a  furious 
howling  around  the  cow  pen.  The  old  gentleman 
went  out  and  chased  them  away,  and  I  as  a  mere 
lad  remember  how  I  trembled  lest  he  should  be 
devoured."  In  this  migration,  besides  his  two  sons, 
a  goodly  number  of  Wilsons  and  some  Alexanders 
accompanied  him.  His  removal  was  much  regretted 
by  his  old  friends  and  neighbors.  His  education, 
mostly  self-acquired,  was  quite  liberal.  He  was  very 
popular,  a  Presbyterian  spotless  in  life,  a  noble, 


120  THE  MECKLENBURG 

worthy  man,  without  an  equal  in  his  profession  as  a 
surveyor.  He  settled  one  mile  northeast  of  Gallatin, 
in  Sumner  County,  twenty-six  miles  above  Nashville, 
where  he  followed  his  profession  as  long  as  he  was 
able  to  do  so.  He  died  in  1824. 

NEIL   MORRISON 

James  Morrison,  a  native  of  Scotland,  early 
migrated  to  this  country;  settled  in  Philadelphia, 
where  his  son,  Neil  Morrison,  was  born  in  1728. 
On  reaching  years  of  manhood,  he  engaged  in 
mercantile  business  in  that  city,  and  then  married. 

A  few  years  before  the  Revolution  the  father  and 
his  three  sons  moved  to  Mecklenburg  and  located 
on  Four  Mile  Creek,  in  Providence  settlement,  Neil 
Morrison  at  this  time  having  a  family.  James 
Morrison  lived  to  be  an  old  man  of  81  years,  and 
was  interred  in  Providence  burial  ground.  Neil 
Morrison's  abilities  soon  commanded  respect,  and  he 
was  chosen  one  of  the  members  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Convention  in  May,  1775.  He  engaged  heartily  in 
the  military  service,  commanding  a  company  on 
Rutherford's  campaign  in  1776,  against  the  Cherokee 
Indians,  burning  their  towns,  cutting  down  their 
corn  and  throwing  it  into  the  streams. 

His  other  services  are  not  known.  He  was  a 
justice  of  the  peace  and  a  member  of  the  County 
Court.  He  died  September  13,  1784,  at  the  age  of 
56  years,  and  was  buried  in  Providence  graveyard. 
His  widow  survived  him  until  her  8Qth  year.  His 
son,  William  Morrison,  was  early  sent  to  Princeton 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          121 

College,  but  the  war  early  in  1776  interrupted  his 
studies,  so  he  bought  himself  a  rifle  and  returned 
home,  and  entered  the  service,  serving  a  while  on 
Sullivan's  Island.  At  Gates's  defeat  in  August, 
1780,  he  was  wounded  by  a  musket  ball,  taken 
prisoner  and  confined  in  jail  in  Camden,  whence  his 
mother  and  sister  succeeded  in  getting  him  pardoned ; 
then  conveyed  him  to  Charlotte,  where  Dr.  Hender- 
son extracted  the  ball  and  he  recovered.  He  subse- 
quently became  a  prominent  physician,  and  died  in 
1806,  together  with  his  brothers,  Alexander  and 
James,  all  within  a  period  of  three  months.  Dr. 
William  Morrison  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
in  1796 — elected  as  a  Federalist — and  his  brother, 
Alexander,  in  1801  to  1803,  as  a  Republican.  Their 
sister  became  the  wife  of  Maj.  Thomas  Alexander, 
who  served  under  Davie  and  Sumter  in  the  Revo- 
lution. 

RICHARD    BARRY 

Of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  Richard  Barry  was  born 
in  Pennsylvania  in  1726.  He  married  Anne  Price, 
of  Maryland,  also  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  and  settled 
many  years  before  the  Revolution  in  the  Mecklen- 
burg district,  twelve  miles  northeast  of  Charlotte,  at 
what  is  still  known  as  the  old  Barry  tanyard. 

Though  best  known  as  a  member  of  the  Mecklen- 
burg Convention  of  May,  1775,  he  performed  many 
other  services  of  a  useful  character,  having  served 
many  years  as  a  magistrate  and  a  member  of  the 
County  Court,  and  though  advanced  in  life,  he  set 
the  good  example  of  taking  his  place  among  the 


122  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Mecklenburg  troops  when  their  services  were  called 
into  requisition.  At  the  age  of  55  he  fought  as 
valiantly  as  the  younger  soldiers  in  disputing  the 
passage  of  Cornwallis's  army  at  Cowan's  Ford,  in 
February,  1781,  when  the  lamented  Davidson  was 
slain,  and  aided  in  burying  his  body  by  torchlight  in 
the  graveyard  at  Hopewell.  Mr.  Barry  was  long  a 
ruling  elder  in  Hopewell  Church.  The  first  sermon 
by  a  Presbyterian  clergyman  in  that  section  of  the 
county  was  preached  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  at 
the  side  of  his  house.  His  death  occurred  August 
21,  1 80 1,  in  the  75th  year  of  his  age. 

JOHN    FLENNIKIN 

James  and  John  Flennikin,  descendants  from 
Scotch-Irish  ancestors,  were  among  the  early  settlers 
of  that  race  in  Pennsylvania.  They  had  nine  chil- 
dren, of  whom  John  Flennikin,  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  was  the  seventh,  born  in  Pennsylvania, 
March  7,  1744.  The  family  early  migrated  to 
Mecklenburg,  and  settled  on  the  waters  of  McAlpin's 
Creek,  in  what  is  now  Sharon  Township.  John 
Flennikin  seems  to  have  had  a  fair  education,  but 
beyond  his  service  as  a  member  of  the  Mecklenburg 
Convention  of  May,  1775,  and  many  years  as  a 
magistrate  and  member  of  the  County  Court,  we 
have  no  record.  His  life  was  one  mainly  of  peaceful 
pursuits.  He  lived  to  a  good  old  age,  when  he  was 
thrown  from  his  horse  on  his  way  to  church  and 
killed,  and  his  remains  mingle  with  the  dust  of  Provi- 
dence burial  ground.  His  brother,  David  Flennikin, 


123 

served  under  Colonel  Irwin  and  General  Sumter  at 
the  battle  of  Hanging-  Rock,  where  he  was  wounded, 
and  carried  to  the  hospital  at  Charlotte.  He  long 
enjoyed  a  pension  for  the  wounds  he  received  in 
the  service,  and  died  April  26th,  1826,  in  the  78th 
year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  Providence  grave- 
yard. Both  of  the  brothers  left  numerous  and 
worthy  descendants. 

WILLIAM    GRAHAM 

But  little  can  be  gathered  of  this  delegate  to  the 
Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May,  1775.  His  was 
a  farmer's  life,  quietly  spent  in  his  calling,  and  he 
left  behind  him  few  evidences  of  his  public  career. 
He  was  an  Irishman  and  early  settled  in  Mecklen- 
burg County.  He  was  useful  in  his  day,  serving, 
it  is  believed,  in  the  army.  He  died  at  an  advanced 
age  in  1820  or  1822,  near  Davidson  College. 

MATTHEW  M'CLURE 

i 
In  the  north  of  Ireland  and  about   1725,   was 

Matthew  McClure  born,  where  he  married;  then 
came  to  America  and  settled  in  Mecklenburg  about 
1751,  five  miles  south  of  Davidson  College.  It  is  an 
evidence  of  his  worth  that  he  was  chosen  one  of  the 
delegates  to  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May, 
1775.  It  is  not  known  that  he  filled  any  other  public 
position.  His  home  was  a  rendezvous  for  the 
patriots  of  his  section.  In  January,  1782,  the 
County  Court  ordered  that  no  person  in  Charlotte, 


124  THE  MECKLENBURG 

or  within  two  miles  of  the  place,  should  be  permitted 
to  sell  any  spiritous  liquors,  so  long  as  the  hospital 
was  continued  in  that  town,  and  employed  Matthew 
McClure  to  take  possession  of  all  such  contraband 
liquors  for  the  use  of  the  hospital,  or  as  the  com- 
manding officer  should  direct.  Too  old  himself  to 
enter  active  service  in  the  field,  his  sons  were  much 
engaged  in  the  army. 

JOHN    QUEARY 

A  native  of  Scotland,  John  Queary  first  migrated 
to  Pennsylvania,  and  then  to  Mecklenburg  some 
years  before  the  Revolution.  As  early  as  January, 
1770,  we  find  Mr.  Queary  residing  in  what  was 
called  for  a  time  Clear  Creek,  now  Philadelphia,  in 
the  bounds  of  Rocky  River,  and  was  an  elder  in  that 
church. 

Of  his  Revolutionary  service,  save  that  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May, 
1775,  nothing  is  known.  He  is  represented  as  a 
man  of  strong  and  vigorous  intellect,  and  a  good 
scholar,  especially  in  mathematics;  accumulating 
means  to  a  moderate  extent ;  died  at  an  early  period. 
He  is  buried  in  what  was  once  Mecklenburg,  now 
Union  County. 

EZRA   ALEXANDER 

All  that  can  be  stated  of  Mr.  Alexander  in 
addition  to  his  having  been  a  delegate  to  the  Meck- 
lenburg Convention  of  May,  1775,  is  that  he  headed 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  125 

a  company  in  June  and  July,  1780,  in  Col.  W.  L. 
Davidson's  command,  during  the  Tory  rising  at 
Ramsour's  Mill,  and  in  the  affair  near  Calson's  Mill 
with  a  body  of  Tories  while  in  pursuit  of  Bryan's 
party,  and  the  next  month  served  in  Capt.  John 
Brownfield's  company  of  •  —  Regiment  at  the 
battle  of  Hanging  Rock.  (MS.  Letters  of  Dr.  C.  L. 
Hunter,  September  21,  1775.)  He  died  in  the 
summer  of  1800,  at  an  advanced  age. 

WAIGHTSTILL   AVERY 

The  Avery  family  trace  a  Hungarian  origin. 
Capt.  James  Avery,  of  Devonshire,  England,  came 
over  with  Winthrop's  company  in  1630,  only  ten 
years  after  the  Mayflower,  first  settling  at  Glou- 
cester; then  in  1651  at  New  London,  Conn.,  and 
shortly  after  at  Groton.  From  him  descended 
Waightstill  Avery,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  who 
was  born  in  Groton  May  3,  1743.  He  graduated  at 
Princeton  College  in  1766,  where  he  remained  a 
tutor  for  a  year.  Then  removing  to  Maryland,  he 
studied  law  for  about  a  year  and  a  half  under  the 
direction  of  Littleton  Dennis,  where  early  in  1769 
he  set  out  for  North  Carolina. 

Selecting  Mecklenburg  for  his  home,  he  domiciled 
with  Hezekiah  Alexander  at  the  moderate  rate  of 
£12  (twelve  pounds)  per  eight  months. 

In  1771  he  was  made  prisoner  by  the  Regulators 
at  Yadkin  Ferry,  and  carried  to  their  camp  in  the 
woods.  They  gave  him  a  flogging  and  soon  set  him 
at  liberty.  When  the  great  war  came  he  was  pre- 


126  THE  MECKLENBURG 

pared  to  meet  it.  In  such  an  atmosphere  as  Meck- 
lenburg, he  could  only  learn  to  breathe  the  purest 
sentiments  of  patriotism.  In  the  Mecklenburg  Con- 
vention in  May,  1775,  he  rilled  an  honored  place. 
He  was  most  probably  associated  with  Brevard  and 
Kennon  on  the  committee  that  reported  the  mem- 
orable Resolves  of  May  2Oth,  and  could  scarcely 
have  kept  silent  in  enforcing  their  adoption  by  his 
talents  and  persuasive  powers  of  eloquence.  He 
was  a  "shrewd  lawyer,"  said  Prof.  F.  M.  Hubbard, 
"whose  integrity,  no  less  than  his  deliberate  wisdom, 
made  his  counsels  weighty." 

Jones,  in  his  "Revolutionary  Defense  of  North 
Carolina,"  states  that  Brevard  and  Avery,  with  their 
classical  attainments,  with  the  native  talent  and 
enthusiasm  of  Thomas  Polk,  produced  the  Meck- 
lenburg Declaration.  He  was  returned  one  of  the 
Mecklenburg  representatives  to  the  North  Carolina 
Provincial  Congress  of  August  and  September, 
1775,  when  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  two  members 
for  the  Salisbury  District  of  Provincial  Council  of 
Safety.  The  Council  held  two  sessions  that  year, 
one  in  October  and  one  in  December. 

He  was  dispatched,  in  behalf  of  the  Council,  to 
purchase  from  the  South  Carolina  Committee  of 
Safety  2,000  pounds  of  powder  for  the  use  of  the 
Province,  and  was  also  appointed  one  of  the  com- 
mittee for  the  District  of  Salisbury  to  purchase 
materials  and  to  employ  proper  persons  to  make  and 
repair  guns  and  bayonets,  and  purchase  guns,  lead, 
and  flints.  In  April,  1776,  he  was  appointed  chair- 
man of  four  commissioners  by  the  Provincial  Con- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  127 

gress  to  erect  salt  works  and  manufacture  salt  for 
the  use  of  the  public,  which  proved  successful  and 
of  great  importance. 

He  was  in  this  year,  1777,  appointed  one  of  the 
trustees  of  Liberty  Hall  Academy  at  Charlotte,  and 
was  also  chosen  one  of  the  two  members  to  represent 
Mecklenburg  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  served 
on  the  committee  to  revise  the  whole  body  of  the 
public  laws  of  the  State.  On  the  I2th  of  January, 
1778,  he  was  commissioned  Attorney-General  of  the 
State. 

To  the  last  his  was  the  costume  of  the  Revolu- 
tion— short  breeches,  long  waistcoats,  silk  stockings, 
and  knee  buckles — wearing  his  hair  in  a  cue,  and 
presenting  altogether  a  singular  appearance  to  the 
younger  generation.  Absent-mindedness  was  one 
of  his  peculiarities,  of  which  his  more  intimate 
friends  would  take  occasion  to  play  off  practical 
jokes  at  his  expense.  He  was  devoted  to  his  friends 
and  strong  in  his  prejudices.  He  was  very  fond  of 
his  books  and  newspapers.  He  died  in  March,  1821. 

COL.    WILLIAM    KENNON 

The  Kennons  migrated  from  England  and  settled 
in  Virginia  about  as  early  as  1660.  Richard 
Kennon,  with  three  associates,  obtained  a  grant  from 
the  Colony  of  2,827  acres  in  Henrico  County,  April 
i,  1670,  and  Elizabeth  Kennon,  perhaps  the  widow 
of  Richard,  April  24,  1703,  secured  a  grant  of  4,000 
acres  in  Henrico.  Robert,  William,  and  Richard 
Kennon,  Jr.,  were  the  sons  of  this  early  couple. 


128  THE  MECKLENBURG 

William  Kennon,  recorded  as  "Gentleman,"  between 
April  17,  1725,  and  November,  1750,  obtained  five 
grants  of  land  in  Henrico,  aggregating  4,063,  and 
one  tract  of  4,000  acres  in  Prince  George  County. 
(MS.  Letters  of  R.  A.  Brock,  Corresponding  Secre- 
tary Virginia  Historical  Society,  September  13, 

1875.) 

He  was  probably  there  on  professional  business, 
and  was  invited  as  a  matter  of  courtesy  to  a  seat  in 
the  Convention  in  Charlotte  May  20,  1775. 

COL.    JAMES    HARRIS 

According  to  the  late  Hon.  W.  S.  Harris,  an 
intelligent  chronicler  of  the  family,  the  Harris  con- 
nection of  Mecklenburg  and  Cabarrus  were  of 
Scotch-Irish  stock,  natives  of  Harrisburg,  Penn., 
who  emigrated  first  to  Cecil  County,  Maryland,  and 
in  1740  to  North  Carolina.  The  facts  are  that 
James  Harris,  a  native  of  Yorkshire,  England,  first 
settled  on  the  Susquehanna  in  1719.  But  Harris- 
burg  was  not  laid  out  as  a  town  till  sixty-five  years 
after.  A  grandson  of  the  first  settler  bore  the  name 
of  Robert,  a  family  name  among  the  North  Carolina 
Harrises.  An  immediate  descendant  of  Col.  James 
Harris  states  that  he  was  a  native  of  Wales,  born 
April  3,  1739,  but  the  probabilities  are  that  he  was 
of  Welsh  descent,  and  a  native  of  Pennsylvania. 
He  early  settled  on  Clear  Creek,  in  Mecklenburg 
County.  He  proved  himself  a  leader  among  the 
people,  and  was  chosen  a  delegate  to  the  Mecklen- 
burg Convention  of  May,  1775.  In  June,  1780,  we 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  129 

find  him  serving-  as  major  of  Colonel  Irwin's  regi- 
ment, and  marching  against  the  Tories  at  Ramsour's, 
who  were  defeated  a  little  before  the  arrival  of  the 
rear  under  General  Rutherford  and  Colonel  Irwin. 
He  was  subsequently  promoted  to  be  colonel. 

In  1785  he  was  chosen  to  represent  Mecklenburg 
in  the  State  Senate,  a  high  honor  in  a  region  where 
there  were  so  many  able  and  worthy  men.  His 
death  occurred  September  27,  1797,  in  the  5Qth  year 
of  his  age.  He  is  represented  as  a  very  rich  man, 
quiet  in  his  demeanor,  provident  and  successful,  and 
a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  denomination.  Some 
of  his  descendants  reside  in  Texas.  His  younger 
brother,  Samuel  Harris,  a  soldier  of  the  Revolution, 
lived  till  he  was  80  years  old.  Another  brother, 
Robert  Harris,  will  receive  a  special  notice. 

DAVID   REESE 

David  Reese,  a  native  of  Wales,  was  among  the 
Protestant  emigrants  who  were  induced  to  settle  in 
Ireland.  He  was  a  Presbyterian  preacher,  and  took 
part  in  the  terrible  siege  of  Londonderry,  which 
lasted  eight  months,  on  scanty  allowance.  He  sub- 
sequently returned  to  Wales,  where  his  son,  David 
Reese,  was  born  in  1710,  and  came  to  America  when 
a  lad  about  15  years  old.  He  settled  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  in  due  time  he  married  Susan  Polk,  a 
near  relative  of  Thomas  and  Ezekiel  Polk,  where 
their  son  Thomas  was  born  in  1742,  who  subse- 
quently became  a  distinguished  clergyman  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  About  1750  David  Reese 


130  THE  MECKLENBURG 

emigrated,  with  his  young-  family,  and  located  in 
Poplar  Tent  settlement  of  the  Catawba  country. 

Well  educated  for  his  day,  he  became  a  prominent 
man  among  the  early  settlers,  and  was  chosen  one 
of  a  bench  of  Poplar  Tent  Church  elders  in  1751. 
Waightstill  Avery,  in  Diary  of  September,  1767, 
records:  "Went  to  David  Reese's,  plotted  a  piece 
of  land  for  him,"  and  "wrote  a  deed  for  him  to  his 
son" ;  which  would  indicate  wealth  in  the  rich  land 
of  the  country.  He  is  one  of  the  reputed  delegates 
to  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May,  1775;  was 
long  a  magistrate  and  member  of  the  County  Court. 

Though  too  old  to  take  the  field,  he  was  appointed 
by  the  Provincial  Congress  of  April,  1776,  with 
Thomas,  to  procure,  purchase,  and  receive  firearms 
for  the  use  of  the  troops  of  Mecklenburg.  He  lived 
to  see  his  country  free  and  happy.  His  will  bears 
date  of  February  5,  1787,  and  was  admitted  to  pro- 
bate in  September  following.  He  must  have  died 
not  long  before  the  latter  date,  at  the  age  of  about 
77  years.  His  remains  lie  buried  in  Poplar  Tent 
burial  ground,  in  an  unknown  grave. 

"He  was  a  born  statesman,"  writes  Hon.  W.  S. 
Harris,  and  "one  of  the  best  of  men."  He  was 
commanding  in  appearance,  fine  looking,  with  bright, 
black  eyes. 

HENRY   DOWNS 

Of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  Henry  Downs  was  born 
in  1728,  probably  in  Pennsylvania,  and  early  settled 
in  Providence  settlement,  which  subsequently  became 
a  part  of  Mecklenburg. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  131 

Of  his  public  career  we  only  know  that  he  was 
one  of  the  reputed  delegates  to  the  famous  Mecklen- 
burg Convention.  He  lived  to  see  his  country  free, 
and  to  enjoy  the  blessings  of  a  well-spent  life.  He 
died  October  8,  1798,  at  the  age  of  70  years,  and 
was  buried  in  Providence  burial  ground,  12  miles 
south  of  Charlotte.  One  correspondent  speaks  of 
"Henry  Downs  of  precious  memory,"  indicative  of 
his  worthy  character,  and  the  good  name  he  left 
behind  him.  His  sons,  Thomas  and  Samuel  Downs, 
were  well  known  in  their  day,  and  their  descendants 
are  quite  numerous  in  the  Mecklenburg  region. 

JOHN    FOARD 

There  was  a  John  Foard  in  Somerset  County,  on 
the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland,  a  Presbyterian  elder, 
as  early  as  1710,  mentioned  in  the  first  stories  of 
Foote's  Sketches  of  Virginia.  As  that  region  fur- 
nished many  of  the  early  settlers  of  Mecklenburg, 
it  is  most  probable  that  the  John  Foard  of  Mecklen- 
burg was  descended  from  that  Maryland  Presby- 
terian family  of  the  same  name. 

As  early  as  January  27,  1770,  he  is  found  among 
the  members  of  Clear  Creek  congregation.  He  is 
said  to  have  been  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  Meck- 
lenburg Convention  of  May,  1775,  and  long  served 
as  a  magistrate  and  member  of  the  County  Court. 
He  served  as  a  private  in  Col.  Charles  Folk's 
Dragoons  in  the  fall  of  1781,  on  the  Raft  Swamp 
expedition.  His  will  bears  date  of  April  25,  1798, 
and  he  probably  died  not  long  after  this  period, 


132  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Mr.  Harris  represents  him  as  a  worthy  and  good 
man,  possessing  great  courage.  He  lived  and  died 
in  that  part  of  Mecklenburg  which  now  forms  Union 
County.  There  are  none  of  his  lineal  descendants 
remaining  in  the  old  Mecklenburg  region,  but  a 
good  many  kindred  bear  his  name. 

CHARLES    ALEXANDER 

Of  this  member  of  the  numerous  Alexander 
family,  little  is  known  save  that  he  was  one  of  the 
reputed  delegates  to  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of 
May,  1775.  He  lived  on  the  line  from  Waxhaw  to 
Charlotte.  He  was  a  gallant  and  true  patriot,  and 
unlike  most  of  his  Alexander  kindred,  he  was  an 
unbeliever  in  the  Christian  religion.  His  death  took 
place  in  1801.  He  had  a  grandson  recently  deceased, 
who  was  an  officer  and  soldier  in  the  war  with 
Mexico. 

ROBERT    HARRIS,    SR. 

In  the  notice  of  Col.  James  Harris,  a  brother  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  it  was  stated  that  he  was 
descended  from  Welsh  ancestry,  and  was  probably 
a  native  of  Pennsylvania. 

Robert  Harris,  born  about  1741,  is  also  supposed 
to  have  been  born  in  that  State,  and  certain  it  is  that 
the  family  connection  included  probably  the  parents 
and  their  sons,  James,  Robert,  Samuel,  Charles,  and 
Thomas,  and  an  only  sister,  who  became  the  wife  of 
Rev.  Thomas  Reese,  early  migrated  to  the  Catawba 
Valley.  Hon.  W.  S.  Harris,  who  descended  from 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          133 

Charles,  fixed  the  period  of  their  migration  in  1740; 
but  it  was  probably  a  few  years  later,  else  some  of 
the  brothers  and  the  sister  must  have  been  born  in 
Mecklenburg  County.  The  venerable  Rev.  N.  R. 
Morgan  and  lady,  the  latter  a  granddaughter  of 
Robert  Harris,  thinks  he  came  to  North  Carolina 
with  the  early  crowd  of  emigrants  from  Pennsyl- 
vania or  Maryland. 

As  early  as  May,  1771,  he  was  chosen  an  elder  of 
Poplar  Tent  Church.  (The  Robert  Harris  of  this 
sketch  should  not  be  confounded  with  the  Col. 
Robert  Harris,  of  Reed  Creek,  referred  to  in  Foote's 
"Sketches  of  North  Carolina,"  page  480.)  Rev. 
Humphrey  Hunter  included  the  name  of  Richard 
Harris,  Sr.,  among  the  list  of  delegates  to  the  Meck- 
lenburg Convention,  which  the  Legislative  Com- 
mittee in  the  State  pamphlet  of  1831  adopted  in 
the  second  organized  list  of  bona  fide  members. 

Lossing,  in  his  "Field  Book  of  the  Revolution," 
corrects  the  apparent  error  of  Richard  Harris  and 
substitutes  the  name  of  Robert  Harris.  "It  is  sur- 
prising," writes  W.  S.  Harris,  who  lived  all  his  life 
in  that  region,  and  one  of  the  best  chroniclers  in  that 
section  of  country,  "that  such  an  error  should  have 
been  committed,  and  the  name  given  as  Richard ;  it 
is  a  mistake.  I  know  that  the  name  should  have 
been  Robert  Harris." 

It  is  due  to  truth  to  say  that  Rev.  N.  R.  Morgan 
and  lady,  the  latter  his  granddaughter,  who  remem- 
bered him  personally,  state  that  they  never  under- 
stood that  that  Robert  Harris  was  one  of  the  famous 
Mecklenburg  delegates. 


134  THE  MECKLENBURG 

In  view  of  his  services  and  sufferings,  a  grant  of 
5,000  acres  of  land  was  donated  to  him  in  Tennessee, 
which  was  neglected  for  many  years,  but  finally 
secured  by  his  descendants,  proving  of  great  value 
to  them.  He  became  the  possessor  of  a  large  body 
of  land  around  what  is  now  known  as  Harris's 
Station,  on  the  North  Carolina  Railroad,  in  Cabarrus 
County.  The  mill  he  built  on  Rocky  River,  the  dam 
of  which  is  solid  rock,  still  stands  and  continues  to 
be  known  as  Harris's  Mill. 

MAJ.    JOHN   DAVIDSON 

Robert  Davidson  and  wife,  Mary  Ramsay,  of 
Dundee,  Scotland,  became  early  settlers  of  Chestnut 
Level,  Lancaster  County,  Pennsylvania,  where  their 
son,  John  Davidson,  was  born  December  15,  1735. 
With  respectable  education,  and  reared  to  the  occu- 
pation of  a  farmer,  and  while  yet  a  young  man,  about 
1760,  he  migrated  to  the  Catawba  country,  in  North 
Carolina. 

Here  he  was  united  in  marriage  with  Violet, 
daughter  of  Samuel  Wilson,  and  sister  to  the  wife 
of  Ezekiel  Polk,  and  settled  on  the  Catawba  near 
Tool's  Ford.  Such  was  his  prominence  that  he  was 
chosen,  in  conjunction  with  Capt.  Thomas  Polk,  to 
represent  Mecklenburg  County  in  the  Colonial  Legis- 
lature in  1773.  When  such  a  man  as  John  Davidson 
states  positively  that  he  was  one  of  the  members  of 
the  famous  Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May,  1775, 
chosen  in  his  captain's  company,  with  John  McKnitt 
Alexander  as  his  coadjutor,  no  one  has  ever  called 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  135 

this  claim  into  question.  It  should  stand  as  one  of 
the  fixed  facts  of  history.  How  Dr.  M.  Winslow 
Alexander,  in  making  up  his  list  of  delegates  in 
.1824,  should  have  omitted  him,  then  being  a  ven- 
erable survivor  of  the  Revolution  and  sustaining  the 
highest  character,  with  Gen.  Joseph  Graham  among 
his  honored  sons-in-law,  and  how  the  Legislative 
Committee  of  1831  should  have  ignored  his  claim  to 
that  undoubted  honor  and  placed  other  names  of 
doubtful  import  in  their  recognized  list  of  delegates, 
is  not  the  least  of  many  strange  things  connected 
with  this  Mecklenburg  matter.  An  intelligent  gen- 
tleman states  that  his  grandfather,  Major  Davidson, 
rode  home  the  night  after  the  declaration  was  made, 
fourteen  miles,  taking  by-paths  for  fear  of  being 
killed  by  the  enemy,  when  in  truth  there  were  no 
British  soldiers  within  hundreds  of  miles  of  Meck- 
lenburg in  May,  1775;  no  Tories,  of  whom  there 
were  few  in  that  region  at  any  time,  had  shown 
themselves  in  hostile  array.  The  Indians  were  still 
peaceful  on  the  frontiers  and  remained  so  for  more 
than  a  year  later,  and  no  Redcoats  trod  the  soil  of 
Mecklenburg  till  after  Cornwallis  forced  himself 
there  in  September,  1780. 

In  September,  1775,  he  was  appointed  second 
major  of  Colonel  Folk's  regiment,  and  doubtless 
went  with  the  regiment  on  the  Snow  Campaign  at 
the  close  of  the  year  against  the  Tory  insurgents  in 
the  region  of  Ninety-Six,  South  Carolina.  He  was 
promoted  to  first  major  of  Mecklenburg  militia 
under  Col.  Adam  Alexander  and  Lieutenant  Phifer 
in  April,  1776,  and  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  then 


1-36  THE  MECKLENBURG 

in  the  summer  and  fall  of  the  same  year,  he  went  on 
Rutherford's  campaign  against  the  Cherokees.  No 
particulars  are  mentioned  of  his  other  services.  The 
remainder  of  his  long  life  he  continued  to  reside  at 
his  old  homestead  on  the  Catawba  until  the  death 
of  his  wife  and  marriage  of  his  children,  when,  in 
1824,  he  went  to  reside  with  his  daughter,  Mrs.  W. 
Lee  Davidson,  near  Davidson  College,  where  he 
closed  his  long  and  useful  life  January  10,  1832,  in 
the  97th  year  of  his  age,  and  was  buried  in  the  family 
burying  ground  at  his  former  home,  a  spot  selected 
by  himself,  near  Tool's  Ford,  on  the  Catawba. 

COL.    EZEKIEL   POLK 

Captain  Jack  included  in  his  list  of  those  "who 
appeared  to  take  the  lead"  in  the  Mecklenburg  move- 
ment of  May,  1775,  Col.  Ezekiel  Polk,  Samuel 
Martin,  William  Wilson,  and  Duncan  Ochiltree; 
and  Lossing  has  given  the  names  of  the  three  latter 
in  his  enumeration  of  the  delegates.  They  were  all 
doubtless  prominent  actors  among  the  people  on  the 
interesting  occasion.  Of  William  Folk's  eight  chil- 
dren, a  sketch  of  Col.  Thomas  Polk,  the  eldest,  has 
already  been  given.  Ezekiel  was  the  youngest,  born 
in  Pennsylvania,  December  7,  1747.  "Pennsylvania 
born,  and  Carolina  bred,"  as  he  himself  composed  in 
evidence  for  his  tombstone,  would  imply  that  when 
quite  young  he  followed  the  fortunes  of  his  brothers 
to  Carolina,  and  was  mostly  raised,  or  bred,  as  he 
preferred  to  term  it.  Of  his  youthful  days,  nothing 
is  remembered. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          137- 

He  early  married  Mary  Wilson,  a  sister  to  the 
wife  of  Maj.  John  Davidson.  In  1769  he  was  clerk 
of  the  Court  of  Tryon  County — territory  from  which 
Lincoln  and  Rutherford  have  since  been  formed. 

In  1778,  Colonel  Polk  removed  into  Mecklenburg 
County,  eleven  miles  south  of  Charlotte,  where  his 
son,  James  K.  Polk,*  was  born.  This  was  a  period 
of  quiet  in  this  region,  and  remained  so  until  Corn- 
wallis's  invasion  in  September,  1780.  There  was  no 
regular  army  then,  after  Gates' s  defeat,  to  protect 
the  county.  When  Cornwallis  reached  Colonel 
Folk's,  on  Sugar  Creek,  in  order  to  save  the  burning 
of  his  home,  the  destruction  of  his  property,  and 
the  suffering  of  his  family,  he  was  forced  to  take 
British  protection,  which  merely  was  understood  to 
protect  himself,  family  and  property  from  molesta- 
tion, without  implying  any  pledge  for  sympathy  or 
service. 

CAPT.    JAMES   JACK 

The  bearer  of  the  Mecklenburg  Resolves  of  May, 
Z775>  to  Philadelphia — Capt.  James  Jack — was  of 
Irish  descent,  born  in  Pennsylvania  in  1739,  whence 
he  removed  to  North  Carolina,  and  settled  in  Char- 
lotte eight  or  ten  years  before  the  commencement  of 
the  Revolutionary  War.  He  married  Margaret 
Houston,  and  was  long  a  popular  hotel  keeper  in 
Charlotte.  He  took  a  decided  and  active  part  in 
the  Revolutionary  War.  He  probably  served  under 
Col.  Thomas  Polk  on  the  Snow  Campaign  in  1775. 


*James  K.  Polk  was  the  son  of  Samuel  Polk,  and  grand- 
son of  Ezekiel  Polk.— EDITOR. 


138  THE  MECKLENBURG 

His  large  acquaintance  with  the  people  enabled  him 
to  raise  a  company  of  men,  whom  he  led  forth  on 
Rutherford's  Cherokee  campaign  in  1776.  He  was 
with  the  troops  embodied  who  opposed  Cornwallis 
when  he  entered  Charlotte  in  September,  1781. 
Captain  Jack  also  led  his  company  in  General  Folk's 
brigade  in  April,  1781,  joining  General  Greene  at 
Rugeby's  Mills,  and  serving  a  three  months'  tour  of 
duty.  The  particulars  of  other  services  of  Captain 
Jack  are  not  preserved.  It  is  only  known  that  he 
was  ever  ready  for  service,  and  was  so  popular  with 
his  company  that  they  induced  him  not  to  seek  or 
accept  the  promotions,  which  indeed  he  did  not 
desire.  In  a  certificate  extracted  by  Colonel  Abra- 
ham and  Hezekiah  Alexander,  December  24,  1781, 
it  is  stated  that  Captain  Jack  had  resided  several 
years  in  Mecklenburg  County,  was  a  good  and 
worthy  member  of  society,  both  civil  and  religious, 
and  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  had  always  con- 
ducted himself  as  a  patriot  and  as  an  officer  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  evince  his  honest  zeal  and  attachment 
to  the  cause  of  his  country.  The  close  of  the  war 
left  him  poor.  He  had  freely  advanced  all  he 
possessed  in  the  great  struggle,  a  portion  of  it  as  a 
loan  to  North  Carolina.  His  unrequited  claims  at 
the  time  of  his  death  upon  North  Carolina  amounted 
to  £7,446  State  currency.  In  1783,  Captain  Jack 
removed  to  Georgia,  settling  in  Wilkes  County. 


REV.    FRANCIS    CUMMINGS,   D.   D. 

A  child  of  Irish  parentage,  Mr.  Cummings  was 
born  near  Shippenburg,  Penna.,  in  the  spring  of 
1752.  In  his  i  Qth  year  his  parents  moved  to  Meck- 
lenburg County,  and  young  Cummings  exchanged 
his  former  life  for  the  classic  halls  of  the  Queen's 
Museum  in  Charlotte,  where  he  was  an  eye-witness 
of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention  of  May,  1775,  con- 
cerning which  he  furnished  a  certificate,  and  also 
gave  some  account  in  a  published  sermon.  He 
graduated  at  Queen's  Museum  about  1776,  and  spent 
several  years  teaching.  Among  his  pupils  in  Bethel, 
York  County,  South  Carolina,  was  Andrew  Jackson, 
afterwards  President,  and  William  Smith,  a  United 
States  Senator  from  South  Carolina. 

When  licensed  to  preach  he  occupied  various 
pulpits  at  Hopewell,  Bethel,  and  other  places.  In 
1788,  while  residing  at  Bethel,  he  was  chosen  by  the 
people  of  York  County  a  member  of  the  South 
Carolina  Convention  for  deciding  upon  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States.  Mr.  Cummings  was  at 
various  periods  the  pastor  of  some  twenty  congre- 
gations, some  in  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
and  Georgia,  dividing  his  time  between  teaching  and 
preaching. 

His  last  sermon  was  preached  January  15,  1832, 
and  three  days  later  he  was  seized  with  influenza, 
which  terminated  his  life  at  Greensboro,  Ga.,  on 
the  2d  of  the  ensuing  February,  in  the  8oth  year  of 
his  age.  He  left  behind  him  a  good  name  and  many 
descendants. 


140  THE  MECKLENBURG 

GEN.  JOSEPH  GRAHAM 

A  native  of  Pennsylvania,  Joseph  Graham  was 
born  October  13,  1759.  His  widowed  mother  in 
1766  removed  with  her  five  children  to  North 
Carolina,  settling  in  the  vicinity  of  Charlotte,  where 
Joseph  received  the  most  of  his  education.  He  was 
present  during  the  meeting  of  the  famous  Mecklen- 
burg Convention,  and  his  reminiscences  concerning 
it  are  not  only  the  most  detailed  of  any  preserved, 
but  the  most  important  in  citing  facts  connected  with 
the  Resolves  which,  when  those  of  May  2Oth  were 
subsequently  discovered,  go  to  substantiate  that  they 
were  the  real  and  only  Resolves  adopted  by  the 
people  of  Mecklenburg  in  May,  1775. 

In  May,  1778,  when  19  years  old,  he  enlisted  in 
the  Fourth  Regiment  of  the  North  Carolina  line, 
and  marched  into  Caswell  County,  and  was  sub- 
sequently furloughed  home;  but  in  August  was 
ordered  to  South  Carolina,  and  then  to  Georgia ;  was 
in  the  battle  of  Stono,  June  20,  1779,  and  soon  after 
discharged.  The  next  year  he  was  appointed  adju- 
tant of  the  Mecklenburg  regiment,  and  when  the 
British  army,  under  Lord  Cornwallis,  invaded  the 
country  in  September,  1780,  he  was  ordered  by 
General  Davidson  to  take  command  of  such  of  the 
inhabitants  as  should  collect  in  Charlotte  on  the  news 
of  the  enemy's  approach,  who  amounted  to  fifty  in 
number.  When  the  British  entered  Charlotte,  Sep- 
tember 26th,  Major  Davis  and  Captain  Graham 
made  a  daring  resistance,  brief,  but  unavailing. 
They  were  compelled  to  retreat,  but  resisted  as  they 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  141 

retired.  In  one  of  the  enemy's  charges,  Graham 
received  nine  wounds,  six  from  the  sabre  and  three 
from  bullets.  His  stock  buckles  probably  prevented 
one  of  the  cuts  upon  his  neck  from  fatally  wounding 
him.  As  it  was,  he  ever  afterwards  bore  marks  of 
the  severity  of  the  blow  aimed  at  his  life.  Four 
deep  sabre  gashes  scarred  his  head  and  one  his  side. 
He  was  left  for  dead  when  the  enemy  departed,  and 
with  difficulty  crawled  to  some  water  near  by,  where, 
slaking  his  intolerable  thirst,  he  washed  his  numer- 
ous painful  wounds  as  well  as  he  could. 

For  a  time  he  expected  to  die  unnoticed  in  this 
secluded  spot,  but  by  night  was  discovered  by  kind- 
hearted  people  who  were  in  search  of  their  wounded 
countrymen,  and  conveyed  to  a  neighboring  house 
of  a  widow.  Here  he  was  concealed  in  an  upper 
room  and  was  attended  by  the  widow  and  her 
daughter  during  the  night,  expecting  he  might  soon 
die.  Once  he  slept  and  breathed  so  quietly,  and  was 
so  pale,  they  thought  he  was  dead.  The  next  day  a 
British  officer's  wife,  with  a  company  of  horsemen, 
visited  the  widow's  house  in  quest  of  fresh  pro- 
visions. By  some  means  she  discovered  that  there 
was  a  wounded  person  in  the  loft,  and,  pressing  the 
inquiry,  learned  he  was  an  officer  and  his  wounds 
severe,  and  kindly  offered  to  send  a  British  surgeon 
to  dress  his  wounds  as  soon  as  she  should  reach  the 
camp  at  Charlotte.  Alarmed  at  his  discovery  and 
dreading  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  he 
rallied  all  his  powers  and  caused  himself  to  be  placed 


142  THE  MECKLENBURG 

on  horseback  the  ensuing  night  and  taken  to  his 
mother's,  and  not  long  after  to  the  hospital.  Three 
balls  were  taken  from  his  body. 


GEN.    GEORGE   GRAHAM 

Nearly  two  years  the  senior  of  his  brother,  Joseph, 
whose  career  has  just  been  sketched,  George  Graham 
was  also  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  born  in  1758, 
and  when  some  nine  years  of  age  was  brought  to 
Mecklenburg  County  by  his  widowed  mother,  and 
educated  at  the  Queen's  Museum  Academy  at  Char- 
lotte, and  became  strongly  imbued  with  the  repub- 
lican principles  of  the  Scotch-Irish  of  that  region. 
He  was  one  of  the  party  of  young  patriots  who  rode 
from  Charlotte  to  Salisbury  early  in  June,  1775,  and 
arrested  Dunn  and  Boothe,  a  couple  of  prominent 
Tory  lawyers  who  proposed  to  detain  Captain  Jack 
when  on  his  way  to  Philadelphia  with  the  Resolves 
of  the  Mecklenburg  Convention.  He  was  active  in 
harassing  and  thwarting  the  foraging  parties  of  the 
enemy  when  Cornwallis  lay  at  Charlotte,  and  one  of 
the  gallant  fourteen  who  dared  to  attack,  October  3, 
1780,  and  actually  drove  a  British  foraging  party  of 
450  infantry,  60  cavalry,  and  about  40  wagons, 
under  Major  Doyle,  at  Mclntire's,  seven  miles  north 
of  Charlotte. 

Capt.  James  Thompson  commanded  this  daring 
party  of  Mecklenburgers.  Two  hundred  yards  from 
Mclntire's  was  a  thicket  down  a  spring  branch,  to 
which  Thompson  and  his  party  repaired.  A  point 
of  rocky  ridge,  covered  with  bushes,  passed  obliquely 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  143 

from  the  road  toward  the  spring-,  and  within  fifty 
steps  of  the  house,  which  sheltered  them  from  view. 
From  under  this  cover  Thompson  and  party  deployed 
into  line  ten  or  twelve  feet  apart,  and  advanced 
silently  to  their  intended  position.  The  British  were 
much  out  of  order ;  some  in  the  barn  throwing  down 
oats  for  the  horses,  others  racing1  after  the  pigs, 
ducks  and  chickens;  a  squad  was  robbing-  the  bee 
hive,  while  others  were  pillaging-  the  dwelling-.  A 
sentinel  placed  on  watch,  within  a  few  steps  of 
where  the  Americans  were  advancing,  appeared  to 
be  alarmed,  though  he  had  not  seen  them.  Captain 
Thompson  fired  the  first  shot  and  brought  down  the 
sentinel.  This  being  the  signal  for  the  attack,  each 
man,  as  he  could  get  a  view,  took  ready  and  delib- 
erate aim  before  he  fired  at  the  distance  of  60  to  70 
steps.  In  two  instances  where  two  happened  to  aim 
at  the  same  pillager,  when  the  first  fired  and  the 
fellow  fell,  the  second  had  to  change  his  aim  and 
search  for  another  object. 

The  enemy  immediately  began  to  form  and  fire 
briskly.  None  of  the  Americans  had  time  to  load 
and  fire  the  second  time,  except  Captain  Thompson 
and  Bradley,  who  were  the  first  to  discharge  their 
rifles.  The  last  shot  of  Thompson's  was  aimed  at 
the  captain  of  the  party  at  the  barn,  150  steps  distant, 
who  died  of  the  wound  he  received  two  days  after- 
wards, at  the  house  of  Samuel  McCombs,  in  Char- 
lotte. Thompson's  party  retreated  through  the 
thicket,  which  was  nearly  parallel  to  the  great  road, 


144  THE  MECKLENBURG 

and  only  about  one-half  mile  from  it.  The  enemy 
continued  to  fire  briskly  and  ceased  about  the  time 
the  Americans  were  half  a  mile  away. 

The  main  body  of  the  British  under  Major  Doyle, 
who  were  in  the  rear,  hearing-  the  firing  at  Mclntire's, 
became  alarmed  and  hurried  to  the  support  of  their 
friends.  Captain  Thompson's  party  now  loaded 
their  rifles,  ascended  the  creek  bottom,  deployed,  as 
before,  under  cover  of  a  high  bank  parallel  with  the 
road,  and  about  40  rods  from  it.  They  had  not  been 
long  at  this  station  before  the  enemy's  advance,  and 
some  wagons,  came  on.  They  severally  fired,  taking 
deliberate  aim,  and  then  retreated  down  the  creek. 
When  the  front  of  the  enemy's  column  arrived  near 
the  creek's  ford,  they  formed  and  commenced  a 
tremendous  fire  through  the  low  ground,  which 
continued  till  Thompson's  army  had  retreated  near 
a  half  mile.  The  cavalry  at  the  same  time  divided, 
one-half  passing  down  each  side  of  the  creek. 
Simultaneous  with  this  movement,  six  or  seven 
hounds  came  in  full  cry  on  the  track  of  the  retreating 
Americans,  and  in  about  three-quarters  of  a  mile 
came  up  with  them.  One  of  the  dogs  was  shot,  and 
the  others  seemed  to  comprehend  the  situation  and 
made  no  further  noise.  The  country  being  thickly 
covered  with  undergrowth,  Thompson's  men  escaped 
unhurt.  The  British  cavalry  kept  on  their  flank  on 
the  high  ground  until  they  reached  the  plantation  of 
Robert  Carr,  Sr.,  where  they  appeared  much  enraged, 
and  carried  the  old  gentleman,  though  70  years  old, 
a  prisoner  to  Charlotte.  Major  Doyle's  party 
moved  on  from  the  ford  of  the  creek  and  formed  a 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  145 

junction  with  those  at  Mclntire's  farm ;  gathered  up 
eight  dead  and  twelve  wounded,  put  them  in  their 
wagons  and  retreated  to  Charlotte  in  great  haste. 
On  their  arrival  they  reported  that  they  had  found 
a  rebel  in  every  bush  after  passing  seven  miles  in 
that  direction.  The  names  of  those  fourteen  deserve 
to  be  perpetuated  in  Mecklenburg  history,  namely: 
Capt.  James  Thompson,  George  Graham,  Frank 
Bradley  (killed  a  few  days  after  by  four  of  Bryan's 
Tories),  James  Henry,  Thomas  and  John  Dickson, 
John  Long,  Robert  and  John  Robinson,  George  and 
Hugh  Theston,  Thomas  McClure,  and  Edward  and 
George  Shipley.  It  is  believed  that  during  the 
whole  war  the  enemy  did  not  sustain  so  great  a  loss 
nor  meet  with  so  complete  a  disappointment  in  his 
objects  by  such  a  mere  handful  of  men.  That  out  of 
30  shots  fired,  20  should  have  done  execution,  is 
quite  a  new  experience  in  the  history  of  war,  and 
several  of  Thompson's  men  thought  that  every  shot 
would  have  told,  so  deliberate  was  their  aim,  had 
each  singled  out  a  different  object;  but  in  two  or 
more  instances,  aiming  at  the  same  person.  (Gen. 
Joseph  Graham's  narrative  in  North  Carolina  Uni- 
versity Magazine,  March,  1836.) 


APPENDIX 

DOCUMENTS  CITED  IN  PRECEDING  ADDRESS 
MARTIN'S  PREFACE 


"Imperfect  as  the  present  publication  is,  it  began 
to  engage  the  attention  of  the  writer  as  early  as  the 
year  1791;  at  that  period,  the  legislature  of  North 
Carolina  afforded  him  some  aid,  in  the  publication  of 
a  collection  of  the  statutes  of  the  parliament  of  Eng- 
land, then  in  force  and  use  within  that  state.  In  pre- 
paring that  work,  he  examined  all  the  statutes  from 
Magna  Charta  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  an  arrangement  of  all  those  which  related  to 
America,  afforded  him  a  complete  view  of  the  colo- 
nial system  of  England.  In  1803  he  was  employed 
by  the  same  legislature  to  publish  a  revisal  of  the 
acts  of  the  general  assembly,  passed  during  the  pro- 
prietary, royal  and  state  governments,  and  the  local 
information  he  acquired  in  carrying  into  effect  the 
intentions  of  those  who  employed  him,  suggested 
the  idea  of  collecting  materials  for  a  history  of  the 
state ;  and  when  afterwards  he  had  the  honor  of  rep- 
resenting the  town  of  Newbern  in  the  house  of 
commons,  he  was  favored  with  a  resolution  of  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  147 

general  assembly,  authorizing  the  secretary  of  state 
to  allow  him  access  to  the  records  of  his  office.  In 
the  speeches  of  the  governors,  at  the  opening  of  the 
sessions  of  the  legislature,  he  found  a  reference  to 
the  principal  transactions  during  recess,  and  there 
were  few  important  events,  particularly  relating  to 
the  state,  which  left  no  trace  on  the  journals  of  the 
legislature,  or  the  proceedings  of  the  executive. 

"During  several  journeys,  which  he  afterwards 
made  to  several  parts  of  the  country,  he  received  con- 
siderable information  from  individuals.  Mr.  George 
Pollock  of  Newbern,  confided  to  him  an  official  let- 
ter book,  and  several  documents  left  by  one  of  his 
ancestors,  who  came  to  the  county  of  Albemarle,  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  who, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  following,  exercised  the 
functions  of  chief  magistrate  over  the  northern  part 
of  Carolina.  The  late  governor  Johnson,  a  nephew 
of  Gabriel  Johnson,  who  presided  over  the  affairs  of 
the  province  from  the  year  1734  to  1754;  governor 
Smith,  who  was  in  possession  of  the  papers  of  pres- 
ident Rowan,  and  governor  Ashe,  whose  ancestors 
were  among  the  earliest  settlers  of  the  country, 
afforded  considerable  materials.  The  gentlemen  in 
possession  of  the  records  of  the  Quaker  meetings, 
in  Perquimans  and  Pasquotank  counties,  and  the 
head  of  the  Unitas  Fratrum,  or  Moravian  Brethren, 
cheerfully  yielded  their  assistance. 

"A  citizen  of  North  Carolina,  being  a  citizen  of 
the  United  States,  has  a  right  to  expect,  in  a  history 
of  his  own  state,  some  notice,  not  only  of  the  settle- 
ment of,  but  also  of  the  most  prominent  events  that 


148  THE  MECKLENBURG 

took  place  in  the  sister  states ;  and  as  the  affairs  o£ 
the  mother  country  have  necessarily  a  considerable 
influence  on  those  of  her  colonies,  the  principal  wars, 
in  which  England  was  engaged,  must  necessarily  be 
noticed  in  the  history  of  any  of  her  American  prov- 
inces. Under  these  impressions,  the  necessary  infor- 
mation, in  this  respect,  was  sought  in  the  most 
approved  publications. 

"The  writer  imagined,  he  had  collected  sufficient 
material  to  justify  the  hope  of  producing  a  history 
of  North  Carolina,  worth  the  attention  of  his  fellow 
citizens,  and  he  had  arranged  all  those  that  related 
to  transactions,  anterior  to  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence, when,  in  1809,  Mr.  Madison  thought  his 
services  were  wanted,  first  in  the  Mississippi  terri- 
tory and  afterwards  in  that  of  Orleans;  and  when 
the  latter  territory  became  a  state,  the  new  govern- 
ment thought  proper  to  retain  him. 

"He  had  entertained  the  hope,  that  the  time  would 
arrive  when  disengaged  from  public  duties,  he  might 
resume  the  work  he  had  commenced  in  Carolina ;  but 
years  have  rolled  away,  without  bringing  this 
period ;  and  a  shock  his  health  lately  received  during 
the  year  of  his  great  climacteric,  has  warned  him, 
that  the  moment  is  arrived  when  his  intended  work 
must  engage  his  immediate  attention,  or  be  abso- 
lutely abandoned. 

"A  circumstance,  for  some  time,  recommended  the 
latter  alternative.  The  public  prints  stated,  that  a 
gentleman  of  known  industry  and  great  talents,  who 
has  filled  a  very  high  office  in  North  Carolina,  was 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  149 

engaged  in  a  similar  work;  but  several  years  have 
elapsed  since,  and  nothing  favors  the  belief  that  the 
hopes  which  he  excited,  will  soon  be  realized. 

"This  gentleman  had  made  application  for  the 
materials  now  published,  and  they  would  have  been 
forwarded  to  him,  if  they  had  been  in  a  condition  o£ 
being  useful  to  any  but  him  who  had  collected  them. 
In  their  circuitous  way  from  Newbern  to  New  York 
and  New  Orleans,  the  sea  water  found  its  way  to 
them :  since  their  arrival,  the  mice,  worms,  and  a 
variety  of  insects  of  humid  and  warm  climate,  have 
made  great  ravages  among  them.  The  ink  of  several 
very  ancient  documents  has  grown  so  pale,  as  to  ren- 
der them  nearly  illegible,  and  notes  hastily  taken  on  a 
journey,  are  in  so  cramped  a  hand,  that  they  are  not 
to  be  deciphered  by  any  person  but  he  who  made 
them. 

"The  determination  has  been  taken  to  put  the 
work  immediately  to  press  in  the  condition  it  was 
when  it  reached  New  Orleans :  this  has  prevented 
any  use  being  made  of  Williamson's  History  of 
North  Carolina,  a  copy  of  which  did  not  reach  the 
writer's  hands  till  after  his  arrival  in  Louisiana. 

"The  expectation  is  cherished,  that  the  people  of 
North  Carolina  will  receive,  with  indulgence  a  work, 
ushered  to  light  under  circumstances  so  untoward. 

"Very  ample  notes  and  materials  are  ready  for  a 
volume,  relating  to  the  events  of  the  revolutionary 
war,  and  another,  detailing  subsequent  transactions, 
till  the  writer's  departure  from  Newbern,  in  1809. 


150  THE  MECKLENBURG 

If  God  yield  him  life  and  health,  and  his  fellow  citi- 
zens in  North  Carolina  appear  desirous  these  should 
follow  the  two  volumes  now  presented  to  them,  it  is 
not  improbable  they  will  appear. 

"Gentilly,  near  New  Orleans, 
"July  20,  1829." 


PAMPHLET  ISSUED  BY  THE  LEGISLATURE  OF  NORTH 
CAROLINA,  1831 


THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

'By  the  Citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County,  on  the 
twentieth  day  of  May,  1775,  with  accompany- 
ing documents,  published  by  the  Governor, 
under  the  authority  and  direction  of 
the   General  Assembly   of   the 
State   of  North   Carolina. 


PREFACE 

"The  resolution  of  the  General  Assembly  direct- 
ing this  publication,  makes  it  the  duty  of  the  Gov- 
ernor to  cause  to  be  published  in  pamphlet  form  the 
Report  of  the  Committee  relative  to  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and  the  accompanying  documents, 
in  the  following  order,  viz:  i.  The  Mecklenburg 
Declaration  with  the  names  of  the  Delegates  compos- 
ing the  meeting.  2.  The  certificates  testifying  to  the 
circumstances  attending  the  Declaration ;  3.  The  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Cumberland  Association. 


152  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"In  the  discharge  of  this  duty,  the  Governor  has 
deemed  it  proper  to  prefix  to  the  publication  the  fol- 
lowing brief  review  of  the  evidence  by  which  the 
authenticity  of  this  interesting  portion  of  the  history 
of  North  Carolina  is  controverted  and  sustained. 

"On  the  30th  of  April,  1819,  the  publication 
marked  A  made  its  appearance  in  the  Raleigh  Regis- 
ter. It  was  communicated  to  the  editors  of  that 
paper  by  Dr.  Joseph  McKnitt,  then  and  now  a  citizen 
of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  and  was  speedily 
republished  in  most  of  the  newspapers  in  the  Union. 
A  paper  containing  it  (the  Essex  Register}  was,  it 
seems,  on  the  226.  June,  1819,  enclosed  to  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, by  his  illustrious  compatriot,  John  Adams, 
accompanied  with  the  remark,  that  he  thought  it 
genuine;  and  this  suggestion  of  Mr.  Adams  elicited 
the  following  reply,  which  was  at  that  time  pub- 
lished in  various  newspapers,  and  has  been  since 
given  to  the  world  in  the  4th  volume  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son's Works,  page  314: 

"TO  JOHN  ADAMS 

"  'Monticello,  July  9,  1819. 

"  'DEAR  SIR, — I  am  in  debt  to  you  for  your  letters 
of  May  the  2ist,  27th,  and  June  the  22nd.  The  first, 
delivered  me  by  Mr.  Greenwood,  gave  me  the  grati- 
fication of  his  acquaintance ;  and  a  gratification  it 
always  is,  to  be  made  acquainted  with  gentleman  of 
candor,  worth,  and  information,  as  I  found  Mr. 
Greenwood  to  be.  That  on  the  subject  of  Mr. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  153 

Samuel  Adams  Wells,  shall  not  be  forgotten  in  time 
and  place,  when  it  can  be  used  to  his  advantage. 

"  'But  what  has  attracted  my  peculiar  notice,  is 
the  paper  from  Mecklenburg  County,  of  North  Car- 
olina, published  in  the  Essex  Register,  which  you 
were  so  kind  as  to  enclose  in  your  last,  of  June  the 
22nd.  And  you  seem  to  think  it  genuine.  I  believe  it 
spurious.  I  deem  it  to  be  a  very  unjustifiable  quiz, 
like  that  of  the  volcano,  so  minutely  related  to  us  as 
having  broken  out  in  North  Carolina,  some  half 
dozen  years  ago,  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  per- 
haps in  that  very  county  of  Mecklenburg,  for  I  do 
not  remember  its  precise  locality.  If  this  paper  be 
really  taken  from  the  Raleigh  Register,  as  quoted,  I 
wonder  it  should  have  escaped  Ritchie,  who  culls 
what  is  good  from  every  paper,  as  the  bee  from  every 
flower ;  and  the  National  Intelligencer,  too,  which  is 
edited  by  a  North  Carolinian;  and  that  the  fire 
should  blaze  out  all  at  once  in  Essex,  one  thousand 
miles  from  where  the  spark  is  said  to  have  fallen. 
But  if  really  taken  from  the  Raleigh  Register,  who  is 
the  narrator,  and  is  the  name  subscribed  real,  or  is  it 
as  fictitious  as  the  paper  itself?  It  appeals,  too,  to  an 
original  book,  which  is  burnt,  to  Mr.  Alexander,  who 
is  dead,  to  a  joint  letter  from  Caswell,  Hewes,  and 
Hooper  all  dead,  to  a  copy  sent  to  the  dead  Caswell, 
and  another  sent  to  Doctor  Williamson,  now  proba- 
bly dead,  whose  memory  did  not  recollect,  in  the  his- 
tory he  has  written  of  North  Carolina,  this  gigantic 
step  of  its  county  of  Mecklenburg.  Horry,  too,  is 
silent  in  his  history  of  Marion,  whose  scene  of  action 
was  the  country  bordering  on  Mecklenburg.  Ram- 


154  THE  MECKLENBURG 

say,  Marshall,  Jones,  Girardin,  Wirt,  historians  of 
the  adjacent  States,  all  silent.  When  Mr.  Henry's 
resolutions,  far  short  of  independence,  flew  like 
lightning  through  every  paper,  and  kindled  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  this  flaming  declaration  of  the 
same  date,  of  the  independence  of  Mecklenburg 
County,  of  North  Carolina,  absolving  it  from  the 
British  allegiance,  and  abjuring  all  political  connec- 
tion with  that  nation,  although  sent  to  Congress,  too, 
is  never  heard  of.  It  is  not  known  even  a  twelve- 
months after,  when  a  similar  proposition  is  first 
made  in  that  body.  Armed  with  this  bold  example, 
would  not  you  have  addressed  our  timid  brethren  in 
peals  of  thunder,  on  their  tardy  fears?  Would  not 
every  advocate  of  independence  have  rung  the  glories 
of  Mecklenburg  County,  in  North  Carolina,  in  the 
ears  of  the  doubting  Dickinson  and  others,  who 
hung  so  heavily  on  us?  Yet  the  example  of 
independent  Mecklenburg  County,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, was  never  once  quoted.  The  paper  speaks,  too, 
of  the  continued  exertions  of  their  delegation  (Cas- 
well,  Hooper,  Hewes)  "in  the  cause  of  liberty  and 
independence."  Now,  you  remember  as  well  as  I 
do,  that  we  had  not  a  greater  Tory  in  Congress  than 
Hooper;  that  Hewes  was  very  wavering,  sometimes 
firm,  sometimes  feeble,  according  as  the  day  was 
clear  or  cloudy ;  that  Caswell,  indeed,  was  a  good 
Whig,  and  kept  these  gentlemen  to  the  notch,  while 
he  was  present;  but  that  he  left  us  soon,  and  their 
line  of  conduct  became  then  uncertain  until  Penn 
came,  who  fixed  Hewes  and  the  vote  of  the  State. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          155 

1  must  not  be  understood  as  suggesting  any  doubt- 
fulness in  the  State  of  North  Carolina.  No  State 
was  more  fixed  or  forward.  Nor  do  I  affirm  posi- 
tively that  this  paper  is  a  fabrication,  because  the 
proof  of  a  negative  can  only  be  presumptive.  But 
I  shall  believe  it  such  until  positive  and  solemn 
proof  of  its  authenticity  shall  be  produced.  And  if 
the  name  of  McKnitt  be  real,  and  not  a  part  of  the 
fabrication,  it  needs  a  vindication  by  the  production 
of  such  proof.  For  the  present,  I  must  be  an  un- 
believer in  the  apocryphal  gospel. 

"  'I  am  glad  to  learn  that  Mr.  Ticknor  has  safely 
returned  to  his  friends ;  but  should  have  been  much 
more  pleased  had  he  accepted  the  Professorship  in 
our  University,  which  we  should  have  offered  him 
in  form.  Mr.  Bowditch,  too,  refuses  us;  so  fas- 
cinating is  the  vinculum  of  the  dulce  natale  solum. 
Our  wish  is  to  procure  natives,  where  they  can  be 
found,  like  these  gentlemen,  of  the  first  order  of 
acquirement  in  their  respective  lines;  but  prefer- 
ring foreigners  of  the  first  order  to  the  natives  of 
the  second,  we  shall  certainly  have  to  go,  for  several 
of  our  Professors,  to  countries  more  advanced  in 
science  than  we  are. 

"  'I  set  out  within  three  or  four  days  for  my  other 
home,  the  distance  of  which,  and  its  cross  mails,  are 
great  impediments  to  epistolary  communications.  I 
shall  remain  there  about  two  months;  and  there, 
here,  and  every  where,  I  am,  and  shall  always  be, 
affectionately  and  respectfully  yours, 

"  TH.  JEFFERSON/ 


156  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"The  republication  of  this  letter  in  a  work  which  is 
intended  for,  and  will  go  down  to  posterity,  recom- 
mended alike  by  its  intrinsic  excellence,  and  the 
illustrious  name  of  the  author,  has  imposed  upon 
the  Legislature  the  task  of  proving  that,  with  regard 
to  this  particular  fact,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  mistaken, 
and  that  his  opinion  was  made  up  from  a  very  super- 
ficial and  inaccurate  examination  of  the  publication 
in  the  Raleigh  Register,  the  only  evidence  then 
before  him,  and  upon  which  his  letter  is  a  commen- 
tary. 

"The  letter  itself  was  evidently  written  currente 
calamo,  and  for  that  reason  may  not  be  regarded 
as  a  fair  subject  for  severe  criticism.  It  is  not  in- 
tended to  subject  it  to  such  a  test,  nor  is  it  designed 
to  examine  it  further  than  may  be  necessary  to  the 
ascertainment  of  truth.  Of  the  ability,  the  purity, 
the  patriotism  of  the  author,  it  is  unnecessary  to 
speak.  His  love  of  country  was  not  bounded  by  the 
confines  of  Virginia;  but  it  is  no  discredit  to  his 
memory  that  her  institutions,  her  heroes,  and  her 
statesmen  occupied  the  first  place  in  his  affections. 
She  was  emphatically  'the  mother  of  great  men,' 
and  'his  own,  his  native  land' ;  and  it  is  no  mat- 
ter of  surprise  that  he  should  be  unwilling,  without 
the  most  ample  proof,  to  transfer  the  brightest  page 
of  her  history  to  emblazon  the  records  of  a  sister 
State.  Mr.  Wirt's  'Life  of  Patrick  Henry'  had  just 
been  published,  and  for  the  latter  was  claimed  the 
high  distinction  of  having  been  the  first  to  give 
motion  to  the  ball  of  the  Revolution.  Mr.  Jefferson 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  157 

himself  was  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence by  Congress,  and  was  not  disposed  to 
share  in  any  degree  the  immortality  with  which  it 
had  crowned  him,  with  a  comparatively  obscure 
citizen  of  North  Carolina;  and,  therefore,  the  evi- 
dence which  was  at  once  satisfactory  to  Mr.  Adams, 
is  by  him  pronounced  'to  be  a  very  unjustifiable 
quiz.' 

"The  grounds  for  this  opinion,  in  the  order  in 
which  they  are  given  to  Mr.  Adams,  are,  I.  That  the 
story  is  'like  that  of  the  volcano*  having  broken  out 
in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  perhaps  in  that  very 
county  of  Mecklenburg/  2.  'If  this  paper  be  really 
taken  from  the  Raleigh  Register,  as  quoted,  I  won- 
der it  should  have  escaped  Ritchie,'  etc.,  'and  that 
the  fire  should  blaze  out  all  at  once  in  Essex,  one 
thousand  miles  from  where  the  spark  is  said  to  have 
fallen.'  3.  'But  if  really  taken  from  the  Raleigh 
Register,  who  is  the  narrator,  and  is  the  name  sub- 
scribed real,  or  is  it  as  fictitious  as  the  paper  itself  f 
4.  'It  appeals,  too,  to  an  original  book,  which  is 
burnt,  to  Mr.  Alexander,  who  is  dead,  to  a  joint 
letter  from  Caswell,  Hewes  and  Hooper,  all  dead, 
to  a  copy  sent  to  the  dead  Caswell,  and  another  sent 
to  Dr.  Williamson,  now  probably  dead,  whose  mem- 
ory did  not  recollect,  in  the  history  he  has  written 
of  North  Carolina,  this  gigantic  step  of  its  county 
of  Mecklenburg,'  etc.,  etc. 

*"The  hoax  alluded  to  was  published  in  1812,  and  represented 
the  volcano  as  having  broken  out  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
Warm  Springs,  in  Buncombe,  a  point  nearly  as  distant  from  the 
county  of  Mecklenburg  as  from  Monticello. 


158  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"Without  further  remark  with  regard  to  the  first 
point — the  quiz  about  the  volcano — or  the  second, 
whether  the  'spurious'  paper  was  really  published  in 
the  Raleigh  Register,  it  is  proper  to  say,  in  reply  to 
the  third  argument,  that  the  name  subscribed  is  real, 
that  the  individual  still  lives,  that  he  is  moreover  a 
credible  witness,  and  that  it  is  to  his  laudable  atten- 
tion and  exertions  that  the  State  is  indebted  for  the 
preservation  of  much  of  the  testimony  which  is  now 
offered  to  the  public.  The  fourth  argument  de- 
mands, and  will  receive  more  particular  attention 
and  examination. 

"The  paper  appeals  to  a  book,  which  is  burnt ;  to 
Mr.  Alexander,  who  is  dead;  to  Messrs.  Caswell, 
Hooper,  and  Hewes,  all  dead ;  to  a  copy  sent  to  'THE 
DEAD  CASWELL/  and  another  sent  to  Dr.  William- 
son, probably  dead,  are  the  consecutive  facts  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  states,  and  on  which  he  relies.  Admit 
the  premises,  and  the  conclusion  would  be  probable, 
though  not  inevitable;  and  a  writer  of  much  less 
ability,  if  permitted  to  assume  his  facts,  might 
predicate  upon  them  not  only  a  very  plausible,  but  an 
unanswerable  argument.  The  very  fact,  however, 
on  which  Mr.  Jefferson  rests,  as  the  climax  of 
improbabilities,  is  not  only  not  proved  to  exist,  but, 
upon  his  own  showing,  does  not  exist ;  and  justifies 
the  remark  in  the  outset,  that  his  letter  was  written 
in  haste,  upon  a  very  superficial  and  imperfect  view 
of  the  subject.  The  paper  does  not  appeal  'TO  THE 
DEAD  CASWELL/  but  to  the  then  LIVING  DAVIE,  a 
native  of  the  section  of  country  in  which  the  event 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  159 

occurred,  like  the  former,  a  distinguished  hero  of 
the  Revolution,  and,  in  every  respect,  a  proper 
depositary  of  the  record.  The  following  is  the  state- 
ment in  question :  (  See  the  paper  A. )  (  The  fore- 
going is  a  true  copy  of  the  papers,  on  the  above  sub- 
ject, left  in  my  hands  by  John  McKnitt  Alexander, 
dec'd.  I  find  it  mentioned  on  file  that  the  original 
book  was  burned  April,  1800.  That  a  copy  of  the 
proceedings  was  sent  to  Hugh  Williamson,*  in  New 
York,  then  writing  a  history  of  North  Carolina,  and 
that  a  copy  was  sent  to  Gen.  W.  R.  Davie.')  Gen. 
Davie  died  shortly  after  the  date  of  Mr.  Jefferson's 
letter;  but  this  identical  copy,  known  by  the  writer 
of  these  remarks  to  be  in  the  hand-writing  of  John 
McKnitt  Alexander,  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the 
Mecklenburg  meeting,  is  now  in  the  Executive 
Office  of  this  State.  (  See  Dr.  Henderson's  certificate, 
B. )  Caswell,  Hooper,  and  Heives  are  all  dead ;  but 
Capt.  Jack,  who  was  appointed  to  carry  to  them,  at 
Philadelphia,  this  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  lived 
long  enough  to  bear  testimony  to  the  truth ;  and  his 
statement  (C)  is  circumstantial,  explicit,  and  sat- 
isfactory. If  it  needed  confirmation,  it  would  be 

*"This  copy  the  writer  well  recollects  to  have  seen  in  the  pos- 
session of  Dr.  Williamson,  in  the  year  1793,  in  Fayetteville, 
together  with  a  letter  to  him  from  John  McKnitt  Alexander, 
and  to  have  conversed  with  him  on  the  subject.  Why  it  is  not 
mentioned  in  his  history,  is  not  strange  to  any  one  who  knows 
the  State,  and  has  read  the  book.  It  cannot  be  regarded  as  a 
history  of  any  country.  The  memorable  Report  and  Resolu- 
tions of  the  Congress  of  April,  1776,  are  alike  unnoticed.  A 
correct  and  satisfactory  account  of  both  proceedings  will  be 
found  in  the  last  chapter  of  Martin's  History  of  North  Car- 
olina, 


160  THE  MECKLENBURG 

found  to  be  fully  sustained  by  the  interesting  com- 
munication (D)  of  the  late  Rev.  Francis  Cummins, 
D.D.,  of  Georgia,  to  the  Hon.  Nathaniel  Macon. 
More  satisfactory  evidence,  drawn  from  more 
respectable  sources,  Mr.  Jefferson,  if  alive,  could  not 
and  would  not  require.  It  is  not  hazarding  too 
much  to  say,  that  there  is  no  one  event  of  the  Revo- 
lution which  has  been,  or  can  be  more  fully  or  clearly 
authenticated. 

"It  is,  perhaps,  needless  to  multiply  proofs,  or  to 
extend  this  article.  Col.  William  Polk  is  a  resident 
of  this  city,  a  venerable  remnant  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary stock,  has  passed  the  common  boundary  of 
human  life,  and  in  a  green  old  age  is  in  the  full 
possession  of  his  faculties.  His  compatriots,  Cas- 
well,  and  Hooper,  and  Hewes,  are  dead,  but  he  lives. 
was  present,  heard  his  father  proclaim  the  Declara- 
tion to  the  assembled  multitude;  and  need  it  be 
inquired,  in  any  portion  of  this  Union,  if  he  will  be 
believed  ? 

"The  letter  (E)  of  Gen.  Joseph  Graham,  another 
surviving  officer  of  the  Revolution,  a  citizen  and  a 
soldier  worthy  of  the  best  days  of  the  Republic,  will 
be  read  with  pleasure  and  perfect  confidence 
throughout  the  wide  range  of  his  acquaintance. 

"The  extract  from  the  memoir  of  the  late  Rev. 
Humphrey  Hunter  (F),  of  Lincoln,  is  equally 
explicit,  full,  and  satisfactory.  He,  with  several 
other  respectable  gentlemen,  whose  statements  are 
appended,  was  an  eye-witness  of  what  he  relates ;  and 
the  combined  testimony  of  all  these  individuals 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  161 

prove  the  existence  of  the  Mecklenburg-  Declara- 
tion, and  all  the  circumstances  connected  with  it, 
as  fully  and  clearly  as  any  fact  can  be  shown  by 
human  testimony. 

"The  following  extract  from  'The  Journal  of  the 
Provincial  Congress  of  North  Carolina,  held  at  Hal- 
ifax, on  the  4th  April,  1776'  (pp.  n,  12),  shows 
that  the  first  legislative  recommendation  of  a 
DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  by  the  CONTI- 
NENTAL CONGRESS,  originated  likewise  in  the  State 
of  North  Carolina.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that 
John  McKnitt  Alexander,  the  Secretary  of  the 
meeting-,  Waightstill  Avery,  John  Phifer,  and  Robert 
Irwin,  who  were  conspicuous  actors  in  the  proceed- 
ings in  Mecklenburg,  were  active  and  influential 
members  of  this  Provincial  Congress. 

"  'The  select  committee  to  take  into  consideration 
the  usurpations  and  violences  attempted  and  com- 
mitted by  the  King-  and  Parliament  of  Britain 
against  America,  and  the  further  measures  to  be 
taken  for  frustrating  the  same,  and  for  the  better 
defense  of  this  Province,  reported  as  follows,  to  wit : 

"  'It  appears  to  your  committee,  that  pursuant  to 
the  plan  concerted  by  the  British  Ministry  for  subju- 
gating America,  the  King  and  Parliament  of  Great 
Britain  have  usurped  a  power  over  the  persons  and 
properties  of  the  people  unlimited  and  uncontrolled ; 
and  disregarding  their  humble  petitions  of  peace,  lib- 
erty, and  safety,  have  made  divers  legislative  acts, 
denouncing  war,  famine,  and  every  species  of  calam- 


162  THE  MECKLENBURG 

ity,  against  the  Continent  in  general.  The  British 
fleets  and  armies  have  been,  and  still  are  daily 
employed  in  destroying  the  people,  and  committing 
the  most  horrid  devastations  on  the  country.  That 
Governors  in  different  Colonies  have  declared  pro- 
tection to  slaves  who  should  imbrue  their  hands  in 
the  blood  of  their  masters.  That  the  ships  belonging 
to  America  are  declared  prizes  of  war,  and  many  of 
them  have  been  violently  seized  and  confiscated.  In 
consequence  of  all  which  multitudes  of  the  people 
have  been  destroyed,  or  from  easy  circumstances 
reduced  to  the  most  lamentable  distress. 

"  'And  whereas  the  moderation  hitherto  mani- 
fested by  the  United  Colonies,  and  their  sincere 
desire  to  be  reconciled  to  the  mother  country  on  con- 
stitutional principles,  have  procured  no  mitigation 
of  the  aforesaid  wrongs  and  usurpations,  and  no 
hopes  remain  of  obtaining  redress  by  those  mean? 
alone  which  have  been  hitherto  tried,  your  commit- 
tee are  of  opinion  that  the  House  should  enter  into 
the  following  resolve,  to  wit : 

"  'Resolved,  That  the  DELEGATES  FOR  THIS 
COLONY  IN  THE  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESS  BE  IM- 
POWERED  TO  CONCUR  WITH  THE  DELEGATES  OF  THE 
OTHER  COLONIES  IN  DECLARING  INDEPENDENCY, 
AND  FORMING  FOREIGN  ALLIANCES,  reserving  to  this 
Colony  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of  forming  a 
Constitution  and  laws  for  this  Colony,  and  of 
appointing  Delegates  from  time  to  time  (under  the 
direction  of  a  general  representation  thereof),  to 
meet  the  Delegates  of  the  other  Colonies,  for  such 
purposes  as  shall  be  hereafter  pointed  out. 


163 

"  The  Congress  taking  the  same  into  considera- 
tion, unanimously  concurred  therewith.' 

"The  striking  similarity  of  expression  in  the  con- 
cluding sentences  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration, 
and  the  Declaration  by  Congress  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1776,  has  been  repeatedly  urged  and  relied  upon 
as  disproving  the  authenticity  of  the  former.  It  is 
scarcely  necessary  to  reply  to  this  suggestion.  It  is 
not  very  strange  that  men  who  think  alike  should 
speak  alike  upon  the  same  subject,  more  especially 
when  high-toned  patriotic  feeling  seeks  for  utter- 
ance. This  similarity  of  expression  is  not  confined, 
however,  to  these  two  papers.  A  comparison  of  the 
foregoing  resolutions  with  the  Declaration,  as  drawn 
by  Mr.  Jefferson,  will  satisfy  the  most  credulous 
upon  this  subject.  Who  suspects  Mr.  Jefferson  of 
intentional  plagiarism  ?  and  yet  he  might  be  charged 
with  having  appropriated  the  language  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Legislature,  with  at  least  as  much  propriety 
as  Mr.  Alexander  with  having  forged  the  Mecklen- 
burg Declaration.  The  sentiments  embodied  by  Mr. 
Jefferson  were  not  peculiar  to  himself,  but  adopted 
by  him  as  expressive  of  the  common  feeling  in  the 
common  language  of  that  eventful  period. 


"REPORT  AND  RESOLUTIONS 

"Adopted  by  the  General  Assembly  at  the  Session 

of  1830-31,  upon  which  this  publication  is 

predicated. 

"The  committee  to  whom  it  was  referred  to  exam- 
ine, collate,  and  arrange  in  proper  order  such  parts 


164  THE  MECKLENBURG 

of  the  Journals  of  the  Provincial  Assemblies  of  North 
Carolina,  as  relate  to  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence;  also  such  documents  as  relate  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  made  by  the  patriotic 
men  of  Mecklenburg-  in  May,  1775;  and  also  such 
measures  as  relate  to  the  same  cause,  adopted  by  the 
freemen  of  Cumberland  County,  previous  to  the  4th 
of  July,  1776,  in  order  to  the  publication  and  distribu- 
tion of  such  documents,  having  performed  the  duty 
assigned  them,  respectfully  report : 

"That  upon  an  attentive  examination  of  the 
Journals  of  the  Provincial  Assembly  of  North  Caro- 
lina, which  met  at  Halifax  in  the  month  of  April, 
1776,  the  committee  are  of  opinion,  that  no  selection 
could  be  made  from  the  said  Journal  to  answer  the 
purpose  of  the  House.  But  as  everything  relating 
to  that  period  must  be  interesting  to  those  who  value 
the  blessing  of  national  independence,  the  commit- 
tee recommend  that  the  whole  of  the  Journal  be 
printed,  and  receive  the  same  extended  distribution 
which  the  resolution  of  the  House  contemplates  for 
the  proceedings  in  Mecklenburg  and  Cumberland. 
This  course  is  deemed  by  the  committee  the  more 
proper,  because  the  Journal  is  now  out  of  print,  and 
it  is  highly  probable  that  the  copy  in  the  possession 
of  the  committee  is  the  only  one  now  extant. 

"Your  committee  have  also  examined,  collated,  and 
arranged  all  the  documents  which  have  been  acces- 
sible to  them,  touching  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence by  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg,  and  the 
proceedings  of  the  freemen  of  Cumberland. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          165 

"By  the  publication  of  these  papers  it  will  be 
fully  verified,  that  as  early  as  the  month  of  May, 
1775,  a  portion  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  sen- 
sible that  their  wrongs  could  no  longer  be  borne, 
without  sacrificing  both  safety  and  honor,  and  that 
redress  so  often  sought,  so  patiently  waited  for,  and 
so  cruelly  delayed,  was  no  longer  to  be  expected, 
did,  by  a  public  and  solemn  act,  declare  the  dissolu- 
tion of  the  ties  which  bound  them  to  the  crown  and 
people  of  Great  Britain,  and  did  establish  an  inde- 
pendent, though  temporary,  government  for  their 
own  control  and  direction. 

"The  first  claim  of  Independence  evinces  such 
high  sentiments  of  valor  and  patriotism,  that  we 
cannot,  and  ought  not,  lightly  to  esteem  the  honor 
of  having  made  it.  The  fact  of  the  Declaration 
should  be  announced,  its  language  should  be  pub- 
lished and  perpetuated,  and  the  names  of  the  gallant 
representatives  of  Mecklenburg,  with  whom  it  origi- 
nated, should  be  preserved  from  an  oblivion,  which, 
should  it  involve  them,  would  as  much  dishonor  us, 
as  injure  them.  If  the  thought  of  Independence  did 
not  first  occur  to  them,  to  them,  at  least,  belongs  the 
proud  distinction  of  having  first  given  language  to 
the  thought;  and  it  should  be  known,  and,  fortu- 
nately, it  can  still  be  conclusively  established,  that 
the  Revolution  received  its  first  impulse  toward 
Independence,  however  feeble,  that  impulse  might 
have  been,  in  North  Carolina.  The  committee  are 
aware  that  this  assertion  has  elsewhere  been 
received  with  doubt,  and  at  times  met  with  denial; 
and  it  is  therefore  believed  to  be  more  strongly 


166  THE  MECKLENBURG 

incumbent  upon  the  House  to  usher  to  the  world  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration,  accompanied  with  such 
testimonials  of  its  genuineness,  as  shall  silence 
incredulity,  and  with  such  care  for  its  general  dif- 
fusion, as  shall  forever  secure  it  from  being  for- 
gotten. And  in  recounting  the  causes,  the  origin 
and  the  progress  of  our  Revolutionary  struggle,  till 
its  final  issue  in  acknowledged  independence,  what- 
ever the  brilliant  achievement  of  other  States  may 
have  been,  let  it  never  be  forgotten,  that  at  a  period 
of  darkness  and  oppression,  without  concert  with 
others,  without  assurances  of  support  from  any 
quarter,  a  few  gallant  North  Carolinians,  all  fear  of 
consequences  lost  in  a  sense  of  their  country's 
wrongs,  relying,  under  Heaven,  solely  upon  them- 
selves, nobly  dared  to  assert,  and  resolved  to  main- 
tain, that  independence  of  which,  whoever  might 
have  thought,  none  had  then  spoken;  and  thus 
earned  for  themselves,  and  for  their  fellow-citizens 
of  North  Carolina,  the  honor  of  giving  birth  to  the 
first  Declaration  of  Independence. 

"The  committee  respectfully  recommend  the  adop- 
tion of  the  following  resolutions. 

"All  of  which  is  submitted. 

"Tnos.  G.  POLK/ Chairman, 
JOHN  BRAGG, 
EVAN  ALEXANDER, 
Louis  D.  HENRY, 
ALEX.  McNEiLL. 

"Resolved,  That  his  Excellency  the  Governor  be 
directed  to  cause  to  be  published  in  pamphlet  form 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  167 

the  above  Report  and  the  accompanying  documents, 
in  the  manner  and  order  following,  viz. :  After  the 
Report,  first,  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  with 
the  names  of  the  Delegates  composing  the  meeting; 
second,  the  Certificates  testifying  to  the  circum- 
stances attending  the  Declaration;  third,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  Cumberland  Association.  And  that 
he  be  further  directed  to  have  reprinted,  in  like 
manner,  separate  and  distinct  from  the  above,  the 
accompanying  Journal  of  the  Provincial  Assembly, 
held  at  Halifax  in  1776. 

"Resolved  further,  That  after  publication,  the 
Governor  be  instructed  to  distribute  said  documents 
as  follows,  to  wit:  Twenty  copies  of  each  to  the 
Library  of  the  State;  to  each  of  the  Libraries  at 
the  University,  ten  copies ;  to  the  Library  of  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  ten  copies ;  and  one  copy 
to  each  of  the  Executives  of  the  several  States  of  the 
Union. 


"  'May  20,  1775. 
"  'Names  of  the  Delegates  Present. 

'CoL.  THOMAS  POLK,  JNO.  MCKNITT  ALEXAN- 
EPHRAIM  BREVARD,          DER. 

HEZEKIAH  J.  BALCH,  HEZEKIAH  ALEXANDER, 

JOHN  PHIFER,  ADAM   ALEXANDER, 

JAMES  HARRIS,  CHARLES  ALEXANDER, 

WILLIAM   KENNON,  ZACHEUS  WILSON,  Sen. 


168  THE  MECKLENBURG 

JOHN   FORD,  WAIGHTSTILL  A  VERY, 

RICHARD  BARRY,  BENJAMIN  PATTON, 

HENRY  DOWNS,  MATTHEW  McCLURE, 

EZRA  ALEXANDER,  NEIL  MORRISON, 

WILLIAM  GRAHAM,  ROBERT  IRWIN, 

JOHN  QUEARY,  JOHN  FLENNIKEN, 
ABRAHAM  ALEXANDER,  DAVID  REESE, 

JOHN  DAVIDSON,  RICHARD  HARRIS,  Sen. 

"  'ABRAHAM  ALEXANDER  was  appointed  Chair- 
man, and  JOHN  McKNirr  ALEXANDER,  Clerk.  The 
following  resolutions  were  offered,  viz. : 

"  'ist.  Resolved,  That  whosoever  directly  or  indi- 
rectly abetted,  or  in  any  way,  form,  or  manner,  coun- 
tenanced the  unchartered  and  dangerous  invasion 
of  our  rights,  as  claimed  by  Great  Britain,  is  an 
enemy  to  this  country,  to  America,  and  to  the  inher- 
ent and  inalienable  rights  of  man. 

"  '2d.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of  Meck- 
lenburg County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political 
bands  which  have  connected  us  to  the  mother  coun- 
try, and  hereby  absolve  ourselves  from  all  alle- 
giance to  the  British  Crown,  and  abjure  all  political 
connection,  contract,  or  association,  with  that  nation, 
who  have  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights  and  lib- 
erties, and  inhumanly  shed  the  blood  of  American 
patriots  at  Lexington. 

"  *3d.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  our- 
selves a  free  and  independent  people;  are,  and  of  right 
ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  Associa- 
tion, under  the  control  of  no  power  other  than  that 


169 

of  our  God  and  the  general  government  of  the  Con- 
gress; to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence, 
we  solemnly  pledge  to  each  other  our  mutual  co- 
operation, our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  most 
sacred  honor. 

'  '4th.  Resolved,  That  as  we  now  acknowledge 
the  existence  and  control  of  no  law  or  legal  officer, 
civil  or  military,  within  this  county,  we  do  hereby 
ordain  and  adopt  as  a  rule  of  life,  all,  each  and  every 
of  our  former  laws, — wherein,  nevertheless,  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain  never  can  be  considered  as 
holding  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  or  authority 
therein. 

"'5th.  Resolved,  That  it  is  further  decreed,  that 
all,  each  and  every  military  officer  in  this  county,  is 
hereby  reinstated  in  his  former  command  and 
authority,  he  acting  conformably  to  these  regula- 
tions. And  that  every  member  present,  of  this  dele- 
gation, shall  henceforth  be  a  civil  officer,  viz.,  a  Jus- 
tice of  the  Peace,  in  the  character  of  a  "Committee- 
man,"  to  issue  process,  hear  and  determine  all  matters 
of  controversy,  according  to  said  adopted  laws,  and 
to  preserve  peace,  union  and  harmony  in  said 
county ; — and  to  use  every  exertion  to  spread  the 
love  of  country  and  fire  of  freedom  throughout 
America,  until  a  more  general  and  organized  gov- 
ernment be  established  in  this  province. 

"  'After  discussing  the  foregoing  resolves,  and 
arranging  bye-laws  and  regulations  for  the  govern- 
ment of  a  Standing  Committee  of  Public  Safety, 
who  were  selected  from  these  delegates,  the  whole 


1?0  THE  MECKLENBURG 

proceedings  were  unanimously  adopted  and  signed. 
A  select  committee  was  then  appointed  to  draw  a 
more  full  and  definite  statement  of  grievances,  and 
a  more  formal  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
Delegation  then  adjourned  about  2  o'clock  A.  M., 
May  20.' 


"A. 
"FROM  THE  RALEIGH  REGISTER  OF  APRIL  30,  1819. 

"  'IT  is  not  probably  known  to  many  of  our 
readers,  that  the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County, 
in  this  State,  made  a  Declaration  of  Independence 
more  than  a  year  before  Congress  made  theirs.  The 
following  document  on  the  subject  has  lately  come 
to  the  hands  of  the  Editor  from  unquestionable 
authority  and  is  published  that  it  may  go  down  to 
posterity. 

"  'NORTH  CAROLINA,  MECKLENBURG  COUNTY, 

May  20,  1775. 

"  'In  the  spring  of  1775,  the  leading  characters  of 
Mecklenburg  County,  stimulated  by  that  enthusias- 
tic patriotism  which  elevates  the  mind  above  con- 
siderations of  individual  aggrandizement,  and  scorn- 
ing to  shelter,  themselves  from  the  impending  storm 
by  submission  to  lawless  power,  etc.,  etc.,  held  sev- 
eral detached  meetings,  in  each  of  which  the  indi- 
vidual sentiments  were,  "that  the  cause  of  Boston 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          171 

was  the  cause  of  all ;  that  their  destinies  were  indis- 
solubly  connected  with  those  of  their  Eastern  fel- 
low-citizens— and  that  they  must  either  submit  to 
all  the  impositions  which  an  unprincipled,  and  to 
them  unrepresented,  Parliament  might  impose — or 
support  their  brethren  who  were  doomed  to  sustain 
the  first  shock  of  that  power,  which,  if  successful 
there,  would  ultimately  overwhelm  all  in  the  com- 
mon calamity."  Conformably  to  these  principles, 
Colonel  T.  Polk,  through  solicitation,  issued  an  order 
to  each  Captain's  company  in  the  county  of  Meck- 
lenburg, (then  comprising  the  present  county  of 
Cabarrus,)  directing  each  militia  company  to  elect 
two  persons,  and  delegate  to  them  ample  power  to 
devise  ways  and  means  to  aid  and  assist  their  suf- 
fering brethren  in  Boston,  and  also  generally  to 
adopt  measures  to  extricate  themselves  from  the 
impending  storm,  and  to  secure  unimpaired  their 
inalienable  rights,  privileges  and  liberties,  from  the 
dominant  grasp  of  British  imposition  and  tyranny. 
"  'In  conformity  to  said  order,  on  the  igth  of 
May,  1775,  the  said  delegation  met  in  Charlotte, 
vested  with  unlimited  powers ;  at  which  time  official 
news,  by  express,  arrived  of  the  battle  of  Lexington 
on  that  day  of  the  preceding  month.  Every  delegate 
felt  the  value  and  importance  of  the  prize,  and  the 
awful  and  solemn  crisis  which  had  arrived — every 
bosom  swelled  with  indignation  at  the  malice,  invet- 
eracy, and  insatiable  revenge,  developed  in  the  late 
attack  at  Lexington.  The  universal  sentiment  was : 
let  us  not  flatter  ourselves  that  popular  harangues, 
or  resolves ;  that  popular  vapor  will  avert  the  storm, 


172  THE  MECKLENBURG 

or  vanquish  our  common  enemy — let  us  deliberate — 
let  us  calculate  the  issue — the  probable  result ;  and 
then  let  us  act  with  energy,  as  brethren  leagued  to 
preserve  our  property — our  lives — and  what  is  still 
more  endearing,  the  liberties  of  America.  Abraham 
Alexander  was  then  elected  Chairman,  and  John 
McKnitt  Alexander,  Clerk.  After  a  free  and  full 
discussion  of  the  various  objects  for  which  the  dele- 
gation had  been  convened,  it  was  unanimously 
ordained — 

[DAVIE  COPY.] 

"  '  "i.  Resolved,  That  whoever  directly  or  indi- 
rectly abetted,  or  in  any  way,  form,  or  manner,  coun- 
tenanced the  unchartered  and  dangerous  invasion 
of  our  rights,  as  claimed  by  Great  Britain,  is  an 
enemy  to  this  country — to  America — and  to  the 
inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  man. 

" '  "2.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of  Meck- 
lenburg County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political 
bands  which  have  connected  us  with  the  Mother 
Country,  and  hereby  absolve  ourselves  from  all  alle- 
giance to  the  British  Crown,  and  abjure  all  political 
connection,  contract,  or  association  with  that  nation, 
who  have  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights  and 
liberties — and  inhumanly  shed  the  innocent  blood 
of  American  patriots  at  Lexington. 

"  '  "3.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  our- 
selves a  free  and  independent  people,  are,  and  of  right 
ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  Associa- 
tion, under  the  control  of  no  power  other  than  that  of 
our  God  and  the  General  Government  of  the  Con- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          173 

gress ;  to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence,  we 
solemnly  pledge  to  each  other,  our  mutual  co-opera- 
tion, our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  most  sacred 
honor. 

"  '  "4.  Resolved,  That  as  we  now  acknowledge 
the  existence  and  control  of  no  law  or  legal  officer, 
civil  or  military,  within  this  county,  we  do  hereby 
ordain  and  adopt,  as  a  rule  of  life,  all,  each  and 
every  of  our  former  laws  wherein,  nevertheless,  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain  never  can  be  considered  as 
holding  rights,  privileges,  immunities,  or  authority 
therein. 

"  '  "5.  Resolved,  That  it  is  also  further  decreed, 
that  all,  each  and  every  military  officer  in  this  county, 
is  hereby  reinstated  to  his  former  command  and 
authority,  he  acting  conformably  to  these  regula- 
tions. And  that  every  member  present  of  this  dele- 
gation shall  henceforth  be  a  civil  officer,  viz.,  a  Justice 
of  the  Peace,  in  the  character  of  a  'Committee-man,' 
to  issue  process,  hear  and  determine  all  matters  of 
controversy,  according  to  said  adopted  laws,  and  to 
preserve  peace,  and  union,  and  harmony,  in  said 
county, — and  to  use  every  exertion  to  spread  the  love 
of  country  and  fire  of  freedom  throughout  America, 
until  a  more  general  and  organized  government  be 
established  in  this  province." 

"  'A  number  of  by-laws  were  also  added,  merely 
to  protect  the  association  from  confusion,  and  to 
regulate  their  general  conduct  as  citizens.  After 
sitting  in  the  court-house  all  night,  neither  sleepy, 
hungry,  nor  fatigued,  and  after  discussing  every 


174  THE  MECKLENBURG 

paragraph,  they  were  all  passed,  sanctioned,  and 
decreed  unanimously,  about  2  o'clock  A.  MV  May 
20.  In  a  few  days,  a  deputation  of  said  delegation 
convened,  when  Capt.  James  Jack,  of  Charlotte,  was 
deputed  as  express  to  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia, 
with  a  copy  of  said  Resolves  and  Proceedings, 
together  with  a  letter  addressed  to  our  three  repre- 
sentatives there,  viz.,  Richard  Caswell,  William 
Hooper  and  Joseph  Hewes — under  express  injunc- 
tion, personally,  and  through  the  State  representa- 
tion, to  use  all  possible  means  to  have  said  proceed- 
ings sanctioned  and  approved  by  the  General  Con- 
gress. On  the  return  of  Captain  Jack,  the  delegation 
learned  that  their  proceedings  were  individually 
approved  by  the  Members  of  Congress,  but  that  it 
was  deemed  premature  to  lay  them  before  the 
House.  A  joint  letter  from  said  three  Members  of 
Congress  was  also  received,  complimentary  of  the 
zeal  in  the  common  cause,  and  recommending  per- 
severance, order  and  energy. 

'  'The  subsequent  harmony,  unanimity,  and  exer- 
tion in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  independence,  evi- 
dently resulting  from  these  regulations  and  the  con- 
tinued exertion  of  said  delegation,  apparently  tran- 
quillized this  section  of  the  State,  and  met  with  the 
concurrence  and  high  approbation  of  the  Council 
of  Safety,  who  held  their  sessions  at  Newbern  and 
Wilmington,  alternately,  and  who  confirmed  the 
nomination  and  acts  of  the  delegation  in  their  offi- 
cial capacity. 

"  'From  this  delegation  originated  the  Court  of 
Enquiry  of  this  county,  who  constituted  and  held 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  175 

their  first  session  in  Charlotte — they  then  held  their 
meetings  regularly  at  Charlotte,  at  Col.  James  Har- 
ris's, and  at  Col.  Phifer's,  alternately,  one  week  at 
each  place.  It  was  a  Civil  Court  founded  on  mili- 
tary process.  Before  this  Judicature,  all  suspicious 
persons  were  made  to  appear,  who  were  formally 
tried  and  banished,  or  continued  under  guard.  Its 
jurisdiction  was  as  unlimited  as  toryism,  and  its 
decrees  as  final  as  the  confidence  and  patriotism  of 
the  county.  Several  were  arrested  and  brought 
before  them  from  Lincoln,  Rowan  and  the  adjacent 
counties. 

"  '[The  foregoing  is  a  true  copy  of  the  papers  on 
the  above  subject,  left  in  my  hands  by  John  McKnitt 
Alexander,  dec'd.  I  find  it  mentioned  on  file  that 
the  original  book  was  burned  April,  1800.  That  a 
copy  of  the  proceedings  was  sent  to  Hugh  William- 
son, in  New  York,  then  writing  a  History  of  North 
Carolina,  and  that  a  copy  was  sent  to  Gen.  W.  R. 
Davie. 

J.  McKNITT.] 

"  'STATE  OF.  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
Mecklenburg  County. 

"  'I,  Samuel  Henderson,  do  hereby  certify,  that 
the  paper  annexed  was  obtained  by  me  from  Maj. 
William  Davie  in  its  present  situation,  soon  after 
the  death  of  his  father,  Gen.  William  R.  Davie,  and 
given  to  Dr.  Joseph  McKnitt  by  me.  In  searching 
for  some  particular  paper,  I  came  across  this,  and, 
knowing  the  hand-writing  of  John  McKnitt  Alex- 


176  THE  MECKLENBURG 

ander,  took  it  up,  and  examined  it.  Maj.  Davie  said 
to  me  (when  asked  how  it  became  torn)  his  sisters 
had  torn  it,  not  knowing  what  it  was. 

"  'Given  under  my  hand,  this  25th  Nov.,  1830. 

"  'SAM.  HENDERSON/ 

"[NOTE. — To  this  certificate  of  Dr.  Henderson  is 
annexed  the  copy  of  the  paper  A,  originally 
deposited  by  John  McKnitt  Alexander  in  the  hands 
of  Gen.  Davie,  whose  name  seems  to  have  been  mis- 
taken by  Mr.  Jefferson  for  that  of  Gov.  Caswell. 
See  preface,  pages  5  and  6.  This  paper  is  somewhat 
torn,  but  is  entirely  legible,  and  constitutes  the  'sol- 
emn and  positive  proof  of  authenticity'  which  Mr. 
Jefferson  required,  and  which  would  doubtless  have 
been  satisfactory  had  it  been  submitted  to  him.] 


LETTER  FROM   HON.   C.  TAIT,   MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS 
FROM    GEORGIA. 

"'WASHINGTON,  Jan'y  25th,  1819. 

"  'DEAR  SIR  : — Of  late  an  inquiry,  and  in  some 
instances  a  controversy,  has  arisen  respecting  the 
origin  of  the  American  Revolution.  Some  say  it 
began  in  Virginia,  and  for  this  honor  the  Virginians 
strenuously  contend.  The  people  of  New  England 
assert  that  it  commenced  in  the  Town  of  Boston,  and 
much  has  been  written  of  late  on  the  subject.  This 
controversy  has  been  dignified  by  a  correspondence 
between  two  ex-Presidents  of  the  U.  S. — Adams 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          177 

and  Jefferson.  Other  parts  of  the  country  begin  to 
put  in  their  pretensions  to  an  early  movem't  in  this 
great  event,  which  is  destined  to  influence  the  affairs 
of  mankind.  North  Carolina  thinks  she  has  some 
claims  in  this  regard ;  and  Mr.  Macon  of  the  Senate 
is  collecting  what  information  he  can  on  the  sub- 
ject. It  appears  by  a  document  lately  furnished  him 
that  the  people  of  the  county  of  Mecklenburg  of  that 
State,  so  early  as  on  the  2Oth  of  May,  1775,  declared 
themselves  independent  in  due  form  in  a  convention 
at  the  town  of  Charlotte.  That  Adam  or  Abram 
Alexander  was  the  President  of  this  Convention,  and 
that  John  McKnitt  Alexander  was  its  Secretary  or 
Clerk.  It  also  appears  by  this  curious  document  that 
Cap'n  James  Jack  was  the  person  chosen  to  carry 
the  proceedings  of  this  convention  to  the  Continental 
Congress  sitting  at  Philadelphia.  Presuming  that 
the  Cap'n  Jack  is  no  other  person  than  your 
respected  father,  I  informed  Mr.  Macon  he  is  still 
living  in  the  county  of  Elbert  and  State  of  Georgia. 
This  information  has  produced  a  request  from  Mr. 
Macon  that  I  would  write  to  you  and  request  it  as  a 
favor  of  you  to  forward  to  him  any  Document,  or 
copy  of  a  Document,  which  has  any  relation  to  the 
Mecklenburg  Convention,  or  of  the  Revolutionary 
movements  in  that  part  of  the  country,  at  that  early 
period.  This  I  persuade  myself  you  will  with  pleas- 
ure do.  By  possibility  your  father  may  have  pre- 
served, as  a  precious  relic  of  those  days,  some  papers 
relating  to  the  proceedings  alluded  to,  and  in  which 


178  THE  MECKLENBURG 

he  bore  an  honorable  part.  If  this  is  the  case  it  will 
gratify  Mr.  Macon  very  much  to  get  them  or  a  copy 
of  them. 

'  'Present  my  respects  to  Mrs.  Jack,  to  your  father 
and  mother,  and  believe  me, 

"  'Yours,  &c.,  &c, 

"'(Signed.)  C.  TAIT. 

'  'Gen.  P.  Jack. 

"  'P.  S. — Mr.  Macon  will  be  very  glad  to  hear 
from  you  before  the  adjournment  of  Congress ;  his 
given  name  is  Nathaniel.  C.  T.' 


CAPTAIN    JACK  S    CERTIFICATE. 

'  'Having  seen  in  the  newspapers  some  pieces 
respecting  the  Declaration  of  Independence  by  the 
people  of  Mecklenburg  County,  in  the  State  of 
North  Carolina,  in  May,  1775,  and  being  solicited  to 
state  what  I  know  of  that  transaction;  I  would 
observe,  that  for  some  time  previous  to,  and  at  the 
time  those  resolutions  were  agreed  upon,  I  resided 
in  the  town  of  Charlotte,  Mecklenburg  County ;  was 
privy  to  a  number  of  meetings  of  some  of  the  most 
influential  and  leading  characters  of  that  county  on 
the  subject,  before  the  final  adoption  of  the  resolu- 
tions— and  at  the  time  they  were  adopted;  among 
those  who  appeared  to  take  the  lead,  may  be  men- 
tioned Hezekiah  Alexander,  who  generally  acted  as 
Chairman,  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  as  Secretary, 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          179 

Abraham  Alexander,  Adam  Alexander,  Maj.  John 
Davidson,  Maj.  (afterwards  Gen.)  Wm.  Davidson, 
Col.  Thomas  Polk,  Ezekiel  Polk,  Dr.  Ephraim  Bre- 
vard,  Samuel  Martin,  Duncan  Ochletree,  William 
Willson,  Robert  Irvin. 

1  'When  the  resolutions  were  finally  agreed  on, 
they  were  publicly  proclaimed  from  the  court-house 
door  in  the  town  of  Charlotte,  and  received  with 
every  demonstration  of  joy  by  the  inhabitants. 

'  'I  was  then  solicited  to  be  the  bearer  of  the  pro- 
ceedings to  Congress.  I  set  out  the  following  month, 
say  June,  and  in  passing  through  Salisbury,  the 
General  Court  was  sitting — at  the  request  of  the 
court  I  handed  a  copy  of  the  resolutions  to  Col.  Ken- 
non,  an  Attorney,  and  they  were  read  aloud  in  open 
court.  Major  William  Davidson,  and  Mr.  Avery, 
an  attorney,  called  on  me  at  my  lodgings  the  even- 
ing after,  and  observed,  they  had  heard  of  but  one 
person,  (a  Mr.  Beard)  but  approved  of  them. 

"  'I  then  proceeded  on  to  Philadelphia,  and  deliv- 
ered the  Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence 
of  May,  1775,  to  Richard  Caswell  and  William 
Hooper,  the  Delegates  to  Congress  from  the  State 
of  North  Carolina. 

"  'I  am  now  in  the  eighty-eighth  year  of  my  age, 
residing  in  the  county  of  Elbert,  in  the  State  of 
Georgia.  I  was  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  from  the 
commencement  to  the  close.  I  would  further 
observe,  that  the  Rev.  Francis  Cummins,  a  Presby- 
terian Clergyman,  of  Greene  County,  in  this  State, 
was  a  student  in  the  town  of  Charlotte  at  the  time  of 


180  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  adoption  of  the  resolutions,  and  is  as  well,  or  per- 
haps better  acquainted  with  the  proceedings  at  that 
time,  than  any  man  now  living. 

"  'Col.  William  Polk,  of  Raleigh,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, was  living  with  his  father,  Thomas,  in  Char- 
lotte, at  the  time  I  have  been  speaking  of,  and 
although  then  too  young  to  be  forward  in  the  busi- 
ness, yet  the  leading  circumstances  I  have  related 
cannot  have  escaped  his  recollection. 

"  'JAMES  JACK. 

"  'Signed  this  7th  Dec.,  1819,  in  presence  of 

"  'Jos  WESTON,  C.  C.  O. 
JAMES  OLIVER,,  Atto.  at  Law.' 


"C  2. 

"  'NORTH  CAROLINA, 
Cabarrus  County,  Nov.  29,  1830. 

"  'We,  the  undersigned,  do  hereby  certify  that  we 
have  frequently  heard  William  S.  Alexander,  dec'd, 
say  that  he,  the  said  Wm.  S.  Alexander,  was  at 
Philadelphia,  on  mercantile  business,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  summer  of  1775,  say  in  June;  and  that 
on  the  day  that  Gen.  Washington  left  Philadelphia 
to  take  the  command  of  the  Northern  army,  he,  the 
said  Wm.  S.  Alexander,  met  with  Capt.  James  Jack, 
who  informed  him,  the  said  William  S.  Alexander, 
that  he,  the  said  James  Jack,  was  there  as  the  agent  or 
bearer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  made  in 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          181 

Charlotte,  on  the  twentieth  day  of  May,  seventeen 
hundred  and  seventy-five,  by  the  citizens  of  Meck- 
lenburg, then  including  Cabarrus,  with  instructions 
to  present  the  same  to  the  Delegates  from  North  Car- 
olina, and  by  them  to  be  laid  before  Congress,  and 
which  he  said  he  had  done ;  in  which  Declaration  the 
aforesaid  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  renounced  their 
allegiance  to  the  crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  set  up 
a  government  for  themselves,  under  the  title  of  the 
Committee  of  Safety. 

"  'Given  under  our  hands  the  date  above  written. 

"  'ALRHONSO  ALEXANDER, 
AMOS  ALEXANDER. 

J.  McKNITT/ 


"D. 

"  'Lexington,  (Georgia,)  November  10,  1819. 

"  'DEAR  SIR  :— The  bearer,  the  Hon.  Thomas  W. 
Cobb,  has  suggested  to  me  that  you  had  a  desire  to 
know  something  particularly  of  the  proceedings  of 
the  citizens  of  Mecklenburg  County,  in  North  Caro- 
lina, about  the  beginning  of  our  Revolutionary  War. 

"  'Previous  to  my  becoming  more  particular,  I 
will  suppose  you  remember  the  Regulation  business, 
which  took  its  rise  in  or  before  the  year  1770,  and 
issued  and  ended  in  a  battle  between  the  Regulators 
and  Governor  Tryon,  in  the  spring  of  1771.  Some 
of  the  Regulators  were  killed,  and  the  whole  dis- 


182  THE  MECKLENBURG 

persed.  The  Regulators'  conduct  "was  a  rudis 
indigestaque  moles"  as  Ovid  says,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  creation ;  but  the  embryotic  principles  of  the 
Revolution  were  in  their  temper  and  views.  They 
wanted  strength,  consistency,  a  Congress  and  a 
Washington  at  their  head.  Tryon  sent  his  officers 
and  minions  through  the  State,  and  imposed  the 
oath  of  allegiance  upon  the  people,  even  as  far  up 
as  Mecklenburg  County.  In  the  year  1775,  after 
our  Revolution  began,  the  principal  characters  of 
Mecklenburg  County  met  on  two  sundry  days,  in 
Queen's  Museum  in  Charlotte,  to  digest  articles  for 
a  State  Constitution,  in  anticipation  that  the  Prov- 
ince would  proceed  to  do  so.  In  this  business  the 
leading  characters  were,  the  Rev.  Hezekiah  James 
Balch,  a  graduate  of  Princeton  College,  an  elegant 
scholar;  Waightstill  Avery,  Esq.,  Attorney  at  Law; 
Hezekiah  and  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Esqrs.,  Col. 
Thomas  Polk,  etc.,  etc. 

"'Many  men,  and  young  men,  (myself  one,) 
before  magistrates,  abjured  allegiance  to  George 
III.,  or  any  other  foreign  power.  At  length,  in  the 
same  year  1775,!  think  at  least  positively  before  July 
4th,  1776,  the  males  generally  of  that  county  met  on 
a  certain  day  in  Charlotte,  and  from  the  head  of  the 
court-house  stairs  proclaimed  Independence  of  Eng- 
lish Government,  by  their  herald  Col.  Thomas  Polk. 
I  was  present,  and  saw  and  heard  it,  and  as  a  young 
man,  and  then  a  student  in  Queen's  Museum,  was  an 
agent  in  these  things.  I  did  not  then  take  and  keep 
the  dates,  and  cannot,  as  to  date,  be  so  particular  as 
I  could  wish.  Capt.  James  Jack,  then  of  Charlotte, 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  183 

but  now  of  Elbert  County,  in  Georgia,  was  sent  with 
the  account  of  these  proceedings  to  Congress,  then 
in  Philadelphia — and  brought  back  to  the  county, 
the  thanks  of  Congress  for  their  zeal — and  the 
advice  of  Congress  to  be  a  little  more  patient,  until 
Congress  should  take  the  measures  thought  to  be 
best. 

"'I  would  suppose,  sir,  that  some  minutes  of 
these  things  must  be  found  among  the  records  of  the 
first  Congress,  that  would  perfectly  settle  their  dates. 
I  am  perfectly  sure,  being  present  at  the  whole  of 
them,  they  were  before  our  National  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

"  'Hon.  Sir,  if  the  above  few  things  can 
afford  you  any  gratification,  it  will  add  to  the  hap- 
piness of  your  friend  and  humble  servant. 

"  'FRANCIS  CUMMINS. 
"  'HoN.  NATHANIEL  MACON/ 


"E. 

"  'Vesuvius  Furnace,  4th  October,  1830. 

"  'DEAR  SIR, — Agreeably  to  your  request,  I  will 
give  you  the  details  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration 
of  Independence  on  the  2Oth  of  May,  1775,  as  well 
as  I  can  recollect  after  a  lapse  of  fifty-five  years.  I 
was  then  a  lad  about  half  grown,  was  present  on 
that  occasion  (a  looker  on). 


184  THE  MECKLENBURG 

'  'During  the  winter  and  spring  preceding  that 
event,  several  popular  meetings  of  the  people  were 
held  in  Charlotte;  two  of  which  I  attended. — 
Papers  were  read,  grievances  stated,  and  public 
measures  discussed.  As  printing  was  not  then  com- 
mon in  the  South,  the  papers  were  mostly  manu- 
script ;  one  or  more  of  which  was  from  the  pen  of  the 
Reverend  Doctor  Reese,  (then  of  Mecklenburg,) 
which  met  with  general  approbation,  and  copies  of  it 
circulated.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  those  and  other 
papers  published  at  that  period,  and  the  journal  of 
their  proceedings,  are  lost. — They  would  show  much 
of  the  spirit  and  tone  of  thinking  which  prepared 
them  for  the  measures  they  afterwards  adopted. 

"  'On  the  2Oth  of  May,  1775,  besides  the  two  per- 
sons elected  from  each  militia  company,  (usually 
called  Committee-men,)  a  much  larger  number  of 
citizens  attended  in  Charlotte  than  at  any  former 
meeting — perhaps  half  the  men  in  the  county.  The 
news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  the  igth  of  April 
preceding,  had  arrived.  There  appeared  among  the 
people  much  excitement.  The  committee  were 
organized  in  the  Court-house  by  appointing  Abra- 
ham Alexander,  Esq.,  Chairman,  and  John  McKnitt 
Alexander,  Esq.,  Clerk  or  Secretary  to  the  meeting. 

"  'After  reading  a  number  of  papers  as  usual,  and 
much  animated  discussion,  the  question  was  taken, 
and  they  resolved  to  declare  themselves  independent. 
One  among  other  reasons  offered,  that  the  King  or 
Ministry  had,  by  proclamation  or  some  edict, 
declared  the  Colonies  out  of  the  protection  of  the 
British  Crown;  they  ought,  therefore,  to  declare 


185 

themselves  out  of  his  protection,  and  resolve  on 
independence.  That  their  proceedings  might  be  in 
due  form,  a  sub-committee,  consisting  of  Doctor 
Ephraim  Brevard,  a  Mr.  Kennon,  an  attorney,  and  a 
third  person,  whom  I  do  not  recollect,  were 
appointed  to  draft  their  Declaration.  They  retired 
from  the  court-house  for  some  time;  but  the  com- 
mittee continued  in  session  in  it.  One  circumstance 
occurred  I  distinctly  remember :  A  member  of  the 
committee,  who  had  said  but  little  before,  addressed 
the  Chairman  as  follows :  "If  you  resolve  on  inde- 
pendence, how  shall  we  all  be  absolved  from  the 
obligations  of  the  oath  we  took  to  be  true  to  King 
George  the  3d  about  four  years  ago,  after  the  Regu- 
lation battle,  when  we  were  sworn  whole  militia 
companies  together.  I  should  be  glad  to  know  how 
gentlemen  can  clear  their  consciences  after  taking 
that  oath."  This  speech  produced  confusion.  The 
Chairman  could  scarcely  preserve  order,  so  many 
wished  to  reply.  There  appeared  great  indignation 
and  contempt  at  the  speech  of  the  member.  Some 
said  it  was  nonsense ;  others  that  allegiance  and  pro- 
tection were  reciprocal ;  when  protection  was  with- 
drawn, allegiance  ceased;  that  the  oath  was  only 
binding  while  the  King  protected  us  in  the  enjoy- 
ment of  our  rights  and  liberties  as  they  existed  at 
the  time  it  was  taken ;  which  he  had  not  done,  but 
now  declared  us  out  of  his  protection;  therefore 
was  not  binding.  Any  man  who  interpreted  it 
otherwise,  was  a  fool.  By  way  of  illustration, 
(pointing  to  a  green  tree  near  the  court-house,) 
stated,  if  he  was  sworn  to  do  anything  as  long  as 


186  THE  MECKLENBURG 

the  leaves  continued  on  that  tree,  it  was  so  long 
binding ;  but  when  the  leaves  fell,  he  was  discharged 
from  its  obligation.  This  was  said  to  be  certainly 
applicable  in  the  present  case.  Out  of  respect  for 
a  worthy  citizen,  long  since  deceased,  and  his 
respectable  connections,  I  forbear  to  mention  names ; 
for,  though  he  was  a  friend  to  the  cause,  a  suspicion 
rested  on  him  in  the  public  mind  for  some  time 
after. 

"  The  sub-committee  appointed  to  draft  the  reso- 
lutions returned,  and  Doctor  Ephraim  Brevard  read 
their  report,  as  near  as  I  can  recollect,  in  the  very 
words  we  have  since  seen  them  several  times  in  print. 
It  was  unanimously  adopted,  and  shortly  after  it  was 
moved  and  seconded  to  have  proclamation  made  and 
the  people  collected,  that  the  proceedings  be  read  at 
the  Court-house  door,  in  order  that  all  might  hear 
them.  It  was  done,  and  they  were  received  with 
enthusiasm.  It  was  then  proposed  by  some  one 
aloud  to  give  three  cheers  and  throw  up  their  hats. 
It  was  immediately  adopted,  and  the  hats  thrown. 
Several  of  them  lit  on  the  court-house  roof.  The 
owners  had  some  difficulty  to  reclaim  them. 

"  'The  foregoing  is  all  from  personal  knowledge. 
I  understood  afterwards  that  Captain  James  Jack, 
then  of  Charlotte,  undertook,  on  the  request  of  the 
committee,  to  carry  a  copy  of  their  proceedings  to 
Congress,  which  then  sat  in  Philadelphia;  and  on 
his  way,  at  Salisbury,  the  time  of  court,  Mr.  Ken- 
non,  who  was  one  of  the  committee  who  assisted  in 
drawing  the  Declaration,  prevailed  on  Captain  Jack 
to  get  his  papers,  and  have  them  read  publicly; 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          187 

which  was  done,  and  the  proceedings  met  with  gen- 
eral approbation.  But  two  of  the  Lawyers,  John 
Dunn  and  a  Mr.  Booth,  dissented,  and  asserted  they 
were  treasonable,  and  endeavored  to  have  Captain 
Jack  detained.  He  drew  his  pistols,  and  threatened 
to  kill  the  first  man  who  would  interrupt  him,  and 
passed  on.  The  news  of  this  reached  Charlotte  in 
a  short  time  after,  and  the  executive  of  thecommittee, 
whom  they  had  invested  with  suitable  powers, 
ordered  a  party  of  ten  or  twelve  armed  horsemen 
to  bring  said  Lawyers  from  Salisbury;  when  they 
were  brought,  and  the  case  investigated  before  the 
committee.  Dunn,  on  giving  security  and  making 
fair  promises,  was  permitted  to  return,  and  Booth 
was  sentenced  to  go  to  Camden,  in  South  Carolina, 
out  of  the  sphere  of  his  influence.  My  brother 
George  Graham  and  the  late  Col.  John  Carruth 
were  of  the  party  that  went  to  Salisbury ;  and  it  is 
distinctly  remembered  that  when  in  Charlotte  they 
came  home  at  night,  in  order  to  provide  for  their 
trip  to  Camden ;  and  that  they  and  two  others  of  the 
party  took  Booth  to  that  place.  This  was  the  first  mil- 
itary expedition  from  Mecklenburg  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  and  believed  to  be  the  first  anywhere 
to  the  South. 

"  'Yours  respectfully, 

"  'J.  GRAHAM. 
"  'Dr.  Jos.  McKT.  ALEXANDER, 

"  'Mecklenburg,  N.  Carolina.' 


188  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"F. 

"EXTRACT  FROM  THE  MEMOIR  OF  THE  LATE  REV. 
HUMPHREY  HUNTER. 

"  'Orders  were  presently  issued  by  Col.  Thos. 
Polk  to  the  several  militia  companies,  that  two  men, 
selected  from  each  corps,  should  meet  at  the  court- 
house on  the  i  gth  of  May,  1775,  in  order  to  consult 
with  each  other  upon  such  measures  as  might  be 
thought  best  to  be  pursued.  Accordingly,  on  said 
day  a  far  larger  number  than  two  out  of  each  com- 
pany were  present.  There  was  some  difficulty  in 
choosing  the  commissioners.  To  have  chosen  all 
thought  to  be  worthy,  would  have  rendered  the 
meeting  too  numerous.  The  following  were 
selected,  and  styled  Delegates,  and  are  here  given, 
according  to  my  best  recollection,  as  they  were 
placed  on  roll :  Abram  Alexander,  sen'r,  Thomas 
Polk,  Rich'd  Harris,  sen'r,  Adam  Alexander,  Rich- 
ard Barry,  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Neil  Morison, 
Hezekiah  Alexander,  Hezekiah  J.  Balch,  Zacheus 
Wilson,  John  Phifer,  James  Harris,  William  Ken- 
non,  John  Ford,  Henry  Downs,  Ezra  Alexander, 
William  Graham,  John  Queary,  Chas.  Alexander, 
Waightstill  Avery,  Ephraim  Brevard,  Benjamin 
Patton,  Matthew  McClure,  Robert  Irwin,  John  Flen- 
niken  and  David  Reese. 

'  'Abram  Alexander  was  nominated,  and  unani- 
mously voted  to  the  Chair.  John  McKnitt  Alexander 
and  Ephraim  Brevard  were  chosen  Secretaries.  The 
Chair  being  occupied,  and  the  Clerks  seated,  the 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          189 

House  was  called  to  order  and  proceeded  to  business. 
Then  a  full,  a  free,  and  dispassionate  discussion 
obtained  on  the  various  subjects  for  which  the  del- 
egation had  been  convened,  and  the  following  reso- 
tions  were  unanimously  ordained : 

"  'ist.  Resolved,  That  whosoever  directly  or  indi- 
rectly abetted,  or  in  any  way,  form  or  manner,  coun- 
tenanced the  unchartered  and  dangerous  invasion  of 
our  rights,  as  claimed  by  Great  Britain,  is  an  enemy 
to  this  country,  to  America,  and  to  the  inherent  and 
inalienable  rights  of  man. 

"  *2d.  Resolved,  That  we,  the  citizens  of  Meck- 
lenburg County,  do  hereby  dissolve  the  political 
bands  which  have  connected  us  to  the  mother 
country,  and  hereby  absolve  ourselves  from  all  alle- 
giance to  the  British  Crown,  and  abjure  all  political 
connection,  contract,  or  association,  with  that  nation, 
who  have  wantonly  trampled  on  our  rights  and  lib- 
erties and  inhumanly  shed  the  blood  of  American 
patriots  at  Lexington. 

"  *3d.  Resolved,  That  we  do  hereby  declare  our- 
selves a  free  and  independent  people ;  are,  and  of  right 
ought  to  be,  a  sovereign  and  self-governing  Associa- 
tion, under  the  control  of  no  power  other  than  that  of 
our  God  and  the  general  government  of  the  Congress ; 
to  the  maintenance  of  which  independence,  we  sol- 
emnly pledge  to  each  other  our  mutual  co-operation, 
our  lives,  our  fortunes,  and  our  most  sacred  honor. 

"  '4th.  Resolved,  That  as  we  now  acknowledge 
the  existence  and  control  of  no  law  or  legal  officer, 
civil  or  military,  within  this  county,  we  do  hereby 


190  THE  MECKLENBURG 

ordain  and  adopt  as  a  rule  of  life,  all,  each  and  every 
of  our  former  laws — wherein,  nevertheless,  the 
crown  of  Great  Britain  never  can  be  considered  as 
holding  rights,  privileges,  immunities  or  authority 
therein. 

"  '5th.  Resolved,  That  it  is  further  decreed,  that 
all,  each  and  every  military  officer  in  this  county,  is 
hereby  reinstated  in  his  former  command  and 
authority,  he  acting  conformably  to  these  regula- 
tions. And  that  every  member  present,  of  this  dele- 
gation, shall  henceforth  be  a  civil  officer,  viz.,  a  Jus- 
tice of  the  Peace,  in  the  character  of  a  "Committee- 
man"  to  issue  process,  hear  and  determine  all  mat- 
ters of  controversy,  according  to  said  adopted  laws, 
and  to  preserve  peace,  union  and  harmony  in  said 
county; — and  to  use  every  exertion  to  spread  the 
love  of  country  and  fire  of  freedom  throughout 
America,  until  a  more  general  and  organized  govern- 
ment be  established  in  this  province. 

"  'Those  resolves  having  been  concurred  in,  bye- 
laws  and  regulations  for  the  government  of  a  stand- 
ing Committee  of  Public  Safety  were  enacted  and 
acknowledged.  Then  a  select  committee  was 
appointed,  to  report  on  the  ensuing  day  a  full  and 
definite  statement  of  grievances,  together  with  a 
more  correct  and  formal  draft  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  The  proceedings  having  been  thus 
arranged  and  somewhat  in  readiness  for  promulga- 
tion, the  Delegation  then  adjourned  until  to-mor- 
row, at  12  o'clock. 

"  The  2Oth  of  May,  at  12  o'clock,  the  Delegation, 
as  above,  had  convened.  The  select  committee  were 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          191 

also  present,  and  reported  agreeably  to  instructions, 
viz.,  a  statement  of  grievances  and  formal  draft  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  written  by 
Ephraim  Brevard,  chairman  of  said  committee,  and 
read  by  him  to  the  Delegation.  The  resolves,  bye- 
laws  and  regulations  were  read  by  John  McKnitt 
Alexander.  It  was  then  announced  from  the  Chair, 
Are  you  all  agreed?  There  was  not  a  dissenting 
voice.  Finally,  the  whole  proceedings  were  read  dis- 
tinctly and  audibly,  at  the  court-house  door,  by  Col. 
Thomas  Polk,  to  a  large,  respectable  and  approving 
assemblage  of  citizens,  who  were  present,  and  gave 
sanction  to  the  business  of  the  day.  A  copy  of  all 
those  transactions  were  then  drawn  off,  and  given 
in  charge  to  Capt.  James  Jack,  then  of  Charlotte, 
that  he  should  present  them  to  Congress,  then  in  ses- 
sion in  Philadelphia. 

"  'On  that  memorable  day  I  was  20  years  and 
14  days  of  age,  a  very  deeply  interested  spectator, 
recollecting  the  dire  hand  of  oppression  that  had 
driven  me  from  my  native  clime,  now  pursuing  me 
in  this  happy  asylum,  and  seeking  to  bind  again  in 
the  fetters  of  bondage. 

"  'On  the  return  of  Capt.  Jack,  he  reported  that 
Congress,  individually,  manifested  their  entire 
approbation  of  the  conduct  of  the  Mecklenburg  citi- 
zens ;  but  deemed  it  premature  to  lay  them  officially 
before  the  House.' 

["NOTE. — The  foregoing  extract  is  copied  from  i 
manuscript  account  of  the  Revolutionary  War  in  the 
South,  addressed  by  the  writer  to  a  friend,  who  had 


192  THE  MECKLENBURG 

requested  historical  information  upon  the  subject. 
Mr.  Hunter  was  in  the  battle  of  Camden,  and  has 
given  an  interesting  narrative  of  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  death  of  Baron  DeKalb.  The 
manuscript  gives  the  biography  of  the  writer,  from 
which  it  appears  he  was  a  native  of  Ireland,  and 
born  on  the  I4th  of  May,  1755,  and  at  an  early  age 
emigrated  from  his  native  land  to  the  Province  of 
North  Carolina.] 


ADDITIONAL  PAPERS  NOT  PARTICULARLY  REFERRED 
TO  IN  THE  PREFACE. 


"From  the  Raleigh  Register,  of  February  18,  1820. 


"  'When  this  Declaration  was  first  published  in 
April  last,  some  doubts  were  expressed  in  the  Eastern 
papers  as  to  its  authenticity,  (none  of  the  Histories 
of  the  Revolution  having  noticed  the  circumstance. ) 
Col.  William  Polk,  of  this  City,  (who,  though  a 
mere  youth  at  the  time,  was  present  at  the  meeting 
which  made  the  Declaration,  and  whose  Father, 
being  Colonel  of  the  county,  appears  to  have  acted  a 
conspicuous  part  on  the  occasion,)  observing  this, 
assured  us  of  the  correctness  of  the  facts  generally, 
though  he  thought  there  were  errors  as  to  the  name 
of  the  Secretary,  etc.,  and  said  that  he  should  prob- 
ably be  able  to  correct  these,  and  throw  some  further 
light  on  the  subject,  by  inquiries  amongst  some  of 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  193 

his  old  friends  in  Mecklenburg  County.  He  has 
accordingly  made  inquiries,  and  communicated  to 
us  the  following  Documents  as  the  result,  which, 
we  presume,  will  do  away  with  all  doubts  on  the 
subject 


"  'CERTIFICATE. 


"  'STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
Mecklenburg  County. 

"'At  the  request  of  Col.  William  Polk,  of 
Raleigh,  made  to  Major-General  George  Graham, 
soliciting  him  to  procure  all  the  information  that 
could  be  obtained  at  this  late  period,  of  the  transac- 
tions which  took  place  in  the  county  of  Mecklenburg, 
in  the  year  1775,  as  it  respected  the  people  of  that 
county  having  declared  Independence;  of  the  time 
when  the  Declaration  was  made;  who  were  the 
principal  movers  and  leaders,  and  the  members  who 
composed  the  body  of  Patriots  who  made  the  Declar- 
ation, and  signed  the  same. 

"  'We,  the  undersigned  citizens  of  the  said  county, 
and  of  the  several  ages  set  forth  opposite  to  each  of 
our  names,  do  certify,  and  on  our  honor  declare,  that 
we  were  present  in  the  town  of  Charlotte,  in  the 
said  county  of  Mecklenburg,  on  the  igth  day  of 
May,  1775,  when  two  persons  elected  from  each 
Captain's  Company  in  said  county,  appeared  as 
Delegates,  to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of  the 
country,  and  to  adopt  such  measures  as  to  them 
seemed  best,  to  secure  their  lives,  liberty,  and  prop- 
erty, from  the  storm  which  was  gathering,  and  had 


194  THE  MECKLENBURG 

burst  upon  their  fellow-citizens  to  the  Eastward,  by 
a  British  Army,  under  the  authority  of  the  British 
King  and  Parliament. 

"  'The  order  for  the  election  of  Delegates  was 
given  by  Col.  Thomas  Polk,  the  commanding  officer 
of  the  militia  of  the  county,  with  a  request  that  their 
powers  should  be  ample,  touching  any  measure  that 
should  be  proposed. 

"  'We  do  further  certify  and  declare,  that  to  the 
best  of  our  recollection  and  belief,  the  delegation  was 
complete  from  every  company,  and  that  the  meeting 
took  place  in  the  court-house,  about  12  o'clock  on 
the  said  iQth  day  of  May,  1775,  when  Abraham 
Alexander  was  chosen  Chairman,  and  Dr.  Ephraim 
Brevard,  Secretary.  That  the  Delegates  continued 
in  session  until  in  the  night  of  that  day ;  that  on  the 
2Oth  they  again  met,  when  a  committee,  under  the 
direction  of  the  Delegates,  had  formed  several 
resolves,  which  were  read,  and  which  went  to 
declare  themselves,  and  the  people  of  Mecklenburg 
County,  Free  and  Independent  of  the  King  and  Par- 
liament of  Great  Britain — and  that,  from  that  day 
thenceforth,  all  allegiance  and  political  relation  was 
absolved  between  the  good  people  of  Mecklenburg 
and  the  King  of  Great  Britain;  which  Declaration 
was  signed  by  every  member  of  the  Delegation, 
under  the  shouts  and  huzzas  of  a  very  large  assembly 
of  the  people  of  the  county,  who  had  come  to  know 
the  issue  of  the  meeting.  We  further  believe,  that 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  drawn  up  by 
the  Secretary,  Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard,  and  that  it  was 
conceived  and  brought  about  through  the  instrumen- 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          195 

tality  and  popularity  of  Col.  Thomas  Polk,  Abraham 
Alexander,  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Adam  Alex- 
ander, Ephraim  Brevard,  John  Phifer,  and  Hezekiah 
Alexander,  with  some  others. 

'  'We  do  further  certify  and  declare,  that  in  a 
few  days  after  the  Delegates  adjourned,  Capt.  James 
Jack,  of  the  town  of  Charlotte,  was  engaged  to  carry 
the  resolves  to  the  President  of  Congress,  and  to 
our  Representatives — one  copy  for  each ;  and  that  his 
expenses  were  paid  by  a  voluntary  subscription. 
And  we  do  know  that  Captain  Tack  executed  the 
trust,  and  returned  with  answers,  both  from  the 
President  and  our  Delegates  in  Congress,  expressive 
of  their  entire  approbation  of  the  course  that  had 
been  adopted,  recommending  a  continuance  in  the 
same;  and  that  the  time  would  soon  be,  when  the 
whole  Continent  would  follow  our  example. 

"  'We  further  certify  and  declare,  that  the  meas- 
ures which  were  adopted  at  the  time  before  men- 
tioned, had  a  general  influence  on  the  people  of  this 
county  to  unite  them  in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  the 
country,  at  that  time;  that  the  same  unanimity  and 
patriotism  continued  unimpaired  to  the  close  of  the 
war ;  and  that  the  resolutions  had  considerable  effect 
in  harmonizing  the  people  in  two  or  three  adjoining 
counties. 

"  That  a  committee  of  Safety  for  the  county 
were  elected,  who  were  clothed  with  civil  and  military 
power,  and  under  their  authority  several  disaffected 
persons  in  Rowan,  and  Tryon(  now  Lincoln  County,) 


196  THE  MECKLENBURG 

were  sent  for,  examined,  and  conveyed  (after  it  was 
satisfactorily  proven  they  were  inimical)  to  Camden, 
in  South  Carolina,  for  safe-keeping. 

"  'We  do  further  certify,  that  the  acts  passed  by 
the  Committee  of  Safety,  were  received  as  the  Civil 
Law  of  the  land  in  many  cases,  and  that  Courts  of 
Justice  for  the  decision  of  controversies  between  the 
people  were  held,  and  we  have  no  recollection  that 
dissatisfaction  existed  in  any  instance  with  regard  to 
the  judgments  of  said  courts. 

"  'We  are  not,  at  this  late  period,  able  to  give  the 
names  of  all  the  Delegation  who  formed  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence ;  but  can  safely  declare  as  to  the 
following  persons  being  of  the  number,  viz :  Thomas 
Polk,  Abraham  Alexander,  John  McKnitt  Alex- 
ander, Adam  Alexander,  Ephraim  Brevard,  John 
Phifer,  Hezekiah  James  Balch,  Benjamin  Patton, 
Hezekiah  Alexander,  Richard  Barry,  William 
Graham,  Matthew  McClure,  Robert  Irwin,  Zacheus 
Wilson,  Neil  Morrison,  John  Flenniken,  John 
Queary,  Ezra  Alexander. 

"  'In  testimony  of  all  and  every  part  herein  set 
forth,  we  have  hereunto  set  our  hands. 

"  'GEORGE  GRAHAM,  aged  61,  near  62. 
"  'WILLIAM  HUTCHISON,  68. 
"  'JONAS  CLARK,  61. 

"  'ROBERT  ROBINSON,        68.' 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  197 

"FROM  JOHN  SIMESON  TO  COL.  WILLIAM  POLK. 

'  'Providence,  January  20,  1820. 

'  'DEAR  SIR, — After  considerable  delay,  occa- 
sioned partly  to  obtain  what  information  I  could,  in 
addition  to  my  own  knowledge  of  the  facts  in  rela- 
tion to  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  partly 
by  a  precarious,  feeble  old  age,  I  now  write  to  you 
in  answer  to  yours  of  the  24th  ult. 

'  'I  have  conversed  with  many  of  my  old  friends 
and  others,  and  all  agree  in  the  point,  but  few  can 
state  the  particulars;  for  although  our  county  is 
renowned  for  general  intelligence,  we  have  still  some 
that  don't  read  the  public  prints.  You  know,  in  the 
language  of  the  day,  every  Province  had  its  Con- 
gress, and  Mecklenburg  had  its  county  Congress,  as 
legally  chosen  as  any  other,  and  assumed  an  attitude 
until  then  without  a  precedent;  but,  alas!  those 
worthies  who  conceived  and  executed  that  bold 
measure,  are  no  more;  and  one  reason  why  so  little 
new  light  can  be  thrown  on  an  old  truth,  may  be 
this — and  I  appeal  to  yourself  for  the  correctness  of 
the  remark — we  who  are  now  called  Revolutionary 
men,  were  then  thoughtless,  precipitate  youths;  we 
cared  not  who  conceived  the  bold  act,  our  business 
was  to  adopt  and  support  it.  Yourself,  sir,  in  your 
eighteenth  year  and  on  the  spot,  your  worthy  father, 
the  most  popular  and  influential  character  in  the 
county,  and  yet  you  cannot  state  much  from  recollec- 
tion. Your  father,  as  commanding  officer  of  the 
county,  issued  orders  to  the  Captains  to  appoint  two 


198  THE  MECKLENBURG 

men  from  each  company  to  represent  them  in  the 
committee. — It  was  done.  Neill  Morrison,  John 
Flenniken,  from  this  company;  Charles  Alexander, 
John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Hezekiah  Alexander, 
Abraham  Alexander,  Esq.,  John  Phifer,  David 
Reese,  Adam  Alexander,  Dickey  Barry,  John 
Queary,  with  others,  whose  names  I  cannot  obtain. 
As  to  the  names  of  those  who  drew  up  the  Declara- 
tion, I  am  inclined  to  think  Doctor  Brevard  was  the 
principal,  from  his  known  talents  in  composition. 
It  was,  however,  in  substance  and  form,  like  that 
great  national  act  agreed  on  thirteen  months  after. 
Ours  was  towards  the  close  of  May,  1775.  In 
addition  to  what  I  have  said,  the  same  committee 
appointed  three  men  to  secure  all  the  military  stores 
for  the  county's  use — Thomas  Polk,  John  Phifer, 
and  Joseph  Kennedy.  I  was  under  arms  near  the 
head  of  the  line,  near  Colonel  Polk,  and  heard  him 
distinctly  read  a  long  string  of  Grievances,  the 
Declaration  and  Military  Order  above.  I  likewise 
heard  Colonel  Polk  have  two  warm  disputes  with 
two  men  of  the  county,  who  said  the  measures  were 
rash  and  unnecessary.  He  was  applauded  and  they 
silenced.  I  was  then  in  my  22d  year,  an  enemy  to 
usurpation  and  tyranny  of  every  kind,  with  a  reten- 
tive memory,  and  fond  of  liberty,  that  had  a  doubt 
arisen  in  my  mind  that  the  act  would  be  contro- 
verted, proof  would  not  have  been  wanting;  but  I 
comfort  myself  that  none  but  the  self-important 
peace-party  and  bluelights  of  the  East,  will  have  the 
assurance  to  oppose  it  any  further.  The  biographer 
of  Patrick  Henry  (Mr.  Wirt)  says  he  first  suggested 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          199 

Independence  in  the  Virginia  Convention;  but  it  is 
known  they  did  not  reduce  it  to  action — so  that  it 
will  pass  for  nothing.  The  Courts  likewise  acted 
independently.  I  myself  heard  a  dispute  take  place 
on  the  bench,  and  an  acting  magistrate  was  actually 
taken  and  sent  to  prison  by  an  order  of  the  Chair- 
man. 

"  'Thus,  sir,  have  I  thrown  together  all  that  I  can 
at  this  time.  I  am  too  blind  to  write  fair,  and  too 
old  to  write  much  sense — but  if  my  deposition  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  would  add 
more  weight  to  a  truth  so  well  known  here,  it  should 
be  at  the  service  of  my  fellow-citizens  of  the  county 
and  State  generally. 

"  'I  am,  sir,  your  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"  'JOHN  SIMESON,  Sen. 

"  'P.  S. — I  will  give  you  a  short  anecdote.  An 
aged  man  near  me,  on  being  asked  if  he  knew  any- 
thing of  this  affair,  replied,  "Och,  aye,  TAM  POLK 
declared  Independence  long  before  any  body  else." 
This  old  man  is  81.' 


"CERTIFICATE  OF  ISAAC  ALEXANDER. 

"  'I  hereby  certify  that  I  was  present  in  Charlotte 
on  the  i Qth  and  2Oth  days  of  May,  1775,  when  a 
regular  deputation  from  all  the  Captains'  companies 
of  militia  in  the  county  of  Mecklenburg,  to  wit :  Col. 
Thomas  Polk,  Adam  Alexander,  Lieut.-Col.  Abram 


200  THE  MECKLENBURG 

Alexander,  John  McKnitt  Alexander,  Hezekiah 
Alexander,  Ephraim  Brevard,  and  a  number  of 
others,  who  met  to  consult  and  take  measures  for  the 
peace  and  tranquillity  of  the  citizens  of  said  county, 
and  who  appointed  Abraham  Alexander  their  Chair- 
man, and  Doctor  Ephraim  Brevard,  Secretary;  who, 
after  due  consultation,  declared  themselves  absolved 
from  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain, 
and  drew  up  a  Declaration  of  their  Independence, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted;  and  employed 
Capt.  James  Jack  to  carry  copies  thereof  to  Con- 
gress, who  accordingly  went.  These  are  a  part  of 
the  transactions  that  took  place  at  that  time,  as  far 
as  my  recollection  serves  me. 

"  'ISAAC  ALEXANDER. 
"'Octobers,  1830.' 


CERTIFICATE  OF  SAMUEL  WILSON. 

"  'STATE  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 
Mecklenburg  County. 

"  'I  do  hereby  certify,  that  in  May,  1775,  a  com- 
mittee or  delegation  from  the  different  militia  com- 
panies in  this  county  met  in  Charlotte;  and  after 
consulting  together,  they  publicly  declared  their 
independence  on  Great  Britain,  and  on  her  Govern- 
ment. This  was  done  before  a  large  collection  of 
people,  who  highly  approved  of  it.  I  was  then  and 
there  present,  and  heard  it  read  from  the  court- 
house door.  Certified  by  me, 

"  'SAMUEL  WILSON/ 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  201 

i 

"CERTIFICATE  OF  JOHN  DAVIDSON. 

» 

'  'Beaver  Dam,  October  5,  1830. 
'  'DEAR  SIR  : — I  received  your  note  of  the  25th  of 
last  month,  requiring  information  relative  to  the 
Mecklenburg  Declaration  of  Independence.  As  I 
am,  perhaps,  the  only  person  living,  who  was  a  mem- 
ber of  that  Convention,  and  being  far  advanced  in 
years,  and  not  having  my  mind  frequently  directed 
to  that  circumstance  for  some  years,  I  can  give  you 
but  a  very  succinct  history  of  that  transaction. 
There  were  two  men  chosen  from  each  captain's 
company,  to  meet  in  Charlotte,  to  take  the  subject 
into  consideration.  John  McKnitt  Alexander  and 
myself  were  chosen  from  one  company;  and  many 
other  members  were  there  that  I  now  recollect,  whose 
names  I  deem  unnecessary  to  mention.  When  the 
members  met,  and  were  perfectly  organized  for  busi- 
ness, a  motion  was  made  to  declare  ourselves  inde- 
pendent of  the  Crown  of  Great  Britain,  which  was 
carried  by  a  large  majority.  Dr.  Ephraim  Brevard 
was  then  appointed  to  give  us  a  sketch  of  the  Declar- 
ation of  Independence,  which  he  did.  James  Jack 
was  appointed  to  take  it  on  to  the  American  Con- 
gress, then  sitting  in  Philadelphia,  with  particular 
instructions  to  deliver  it  to  the  North  Carolina  Dele- 
gation in  Congress,  (Hooper  and  Caswell.)  When 
Jack  returned,  he  stated  that  the  Declaration  was 
presented  to  Congress,  and  the  reply  was,  that  they 
highly  esteemed  the  patriotism  of  the  citizens  of 
Mecklenburg;  but  they  thought  the  measure  too 
premature. 


202  THE  MECKLENBURG 

"  'I  am  confident  that  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence by  the  people  of  Mecklenburg  was  made  public 
at  least  twelve  months  before  that  of  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States. 

"  'I  do  certify  that  the  foregoing  statement,  rela- 
tive to  the  Mecklenburg  Independence  is  correct,  and 
which  I  am  willing  to  be  qualified  to,  should  it  be 
required. 

"  'Yours  respectfully, 

"  'JOHN  DAVIDSON. 
"  'Doct.  J.  M.  ALEXANDER/ 


"NOTE. — The  following  is  a  copy  of  an  original 
paper  furnished  by  the  writer  of  the  foregoing  cer- 
tificate, from  which  it  would  seem,  that,  from  the 
period  of  the  Mecklenburg  Declaration,  every 
individual  friendly  to  the  American  cause  was  fur- 
nished by  the  Chairman  of  that  meeting,  ABRAM 
ALEXANDER,  with  testimonials  of  the  character  he 
had  assumed;  and  in  this  point  of  view  the  paper 
affords  strong  collateral  testimony  of  the  correctness 
of  many  of  the  foregoing  certificates : 

"  'NORTH  CAROLINA,,  Mecklenburg  County, 
November  28,  1775. 

"  'These  may  certify  to  all  whom  they  may  con- 
cern, that  the  bearer  hereof,  William  Henderson,  is 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE  203 

allowed  here  to  be  a  true  friend  to  liberty,  and 
signed  the  Association. 
"  'Certified  by 

"  'ABR'M  ALEXANDER,  Chairman 

"  'of  the  Committee  of  P.  5V 


LETTER  FROM  J.  G.  M.  RAMSEY. 

"  'Mecklenburg,  T.  Oct.  i,  1830. 

"  'DEAR  SIR: — Yours  of  2ist  ultimo  was  duly 
received.  In  answer  I  have  only  to  say,  that  little 
is  in  my  possession  on  the  subject  alluded  to  which 
you  have  not  already  seen.  Subjoined  are  the  cer- 
tificates of  two  gentlemen  of  this  county,  whose 
respectability  and  veracity  are  attested  by  their 
acquaintances  here,  as  well  as  by  the  accompanying 
testimonials  of  the  magistrates  in  whose  neighbor- 
hood they  reside.  With  this  you  will  also  receive 
extracts  from  letters  on  the  same  subject  from  gen- 
tlemen well  known  to  you,  and  to  the  country  at 
large. 

"  'I  am,  very  respectfully,  yours,  &c., 

"  'J.  G.  M.  RAMSEY/ 


"CERTIFICATE  OF  JAMES  JOHNSON. 

"  'I,  James  Johnson,  now  of  Knox  County, 
Tennessee,  but  formely  of  Mecklenburg  County, 
North  Carolina,  do  hereby  certify,  that  to  the  best 


204  THE  MECKLENBURG 

of  my  recollection,  in  the  month  of  May,  1775,  there 
were  several  meetings  in  Charlotte  concerning  the 
impending  war.  Being  young,  I  was  not  called  on 
to  take  an  active  part  in  the  same;  but  one  thing  I 
do  positively  remember,  that  she  (Mecklenburg 
County)  did  meet  and  hold  a  Convention,  declared 
independence,  and  sent  a  man  to  Philadelphia  with 
the  proceedings.  And  I  do  further  certify,  that  I 
am  well  acquainted  with  several  of  the  men  who 
formed  or  constituted  said  Convention,  viz. :  John 
McKnitt  Alexander,  Hezekiah  Alexander,  Abraham 
Alexander,  Adam  Alexander,  Robert  Irwin,  Neill 
Morrison,  John  Flenniken,  John  Queary. 

"  'Certified  by  me  this  i  ith  day  of  October,  1827. 

"  'JAMES  JOHNSON, 
"  'In  my  seventy-third  year.' 


CERTIFICATE  OF  ELIJAH  JOHNSON  AND  JAMES 
WILHITE. 

"  'We,  Elijah  Johnson  and  James  Wilhite,  acting 
Justices  of  the  Peace  for  the  county  of  Knox, 
do  certify,  that  we  have  been  a  long  time  well 
acquainted  with  Samuel  Montgomery  and  James 
Johnson,  both  residents  of  Knox  County;  and  that 
they  are  entitled  to  full  credit,  and  any  statement 
they  may  make  to  implicit  confidence. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE          205 

"  'Given  under  our  hands  and  seals  this  4th  day 
of  October,  1830. 

"'ELIJAH  JOHNSON,  (Seal.) 
"'JAMES  WILHITE,  (Seal.) 
"  'Justices  of  the  Peace  for  Knox  County.' 

"NOTE. — Mr.  Montgomery's  certificate  does  not 
purport  to  state  the  facts  as  having  come  under  his 
own  personal  observation.  It  is  therefore  omitted  in 
this  publication." 


ft 
44 


University  of  California 

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405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

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